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(11/05/03 5:40am)
The latest issue of the Indiana Business Review reports that more women are choosing high-tech positions, such as engineer, physician and mathematician, over jobs traditionally held by women, such as cashier, librarian or nurse.\nThe IBR is a quarterly research publication of the Indiana Business Research Center, part of the IU Kelley School of Business.\nThere are several reasons why the gap between men and women in high-tech jobs is closing.\n"More women are interested in these fields because there are more jobs available in them today," said Carol Rogers, author of the article and associate director of the IBRC. "The average salary also tends to be a bit higher, and K-12 education is not limiting or pushing away women who are interested in these jobs."\nThough the place of women in high-tech industries has grown in the past three decades, especially since the 1972 Equal Employment Opportunity Act which gave women more recognition while researching at universities, Indiana has not been as quick to grow as other states.\n"Overall, Indiana is proportionally lagging behind the rest of the nation when it comes to women in high-tech jobs," Rogers said. "But there are many organizations trying to change that such as 'Bring Your Daughter to Work Day," and 'Women in High Tech,' which gets girls interested in science in high school."\nGrowth in high-tech industries is expected to increase anywhere from 52 to 100 percent between now and 2010 depending on the field, according to the IBR.\nStill, the role of Hoosier women in that growth is in question.\n"I don't think anyone can deny that girls can grow up to be engineers, mathematicians or NASA pilots," Rogers said. "The question is: do girls really like these fields and are the barriers down low enough for them to enter these fields?"\nAnother area expected to see more output from women is patenting. \n"Many more women are participating in graduate studies and we're seeing much more patent activity from them," said Jennifer Kurtz, a research fellow with the IBRC. "In the past, those opportunities were really only open to men, but now we're seeing the result of women's participation in innovation."\nKurtz encourages women looking to enter the high-tech industry to consider a degree in informatics, biology or chemistry, but says that just about any degree could be used in high tech.\nAn English degree, for instance, could help in the field of linguistics.\n"If it makes sense and the opportunity presents itself, be open to it. You can't run from high tech," Kurtz said. "I talk to my daughters about the future, and they don't expect Prince Charming to come and sweep them off their feet. They expect to make it on their own."\n-- Contact staff writer Chris Freiberg at wfreiber@indiana.edu.
(10/31/03 5:29am)
Five IU professors have been elected fellows in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a high honor for American and foreign scientists alike.\nThe IU fellows, whose work has been "deemed scientifically or socially distinguished" by the AAAS Council, are anthropology professors Kathy Schick and Nicholas Toth, biology professors Mark Estelle and Loren Rieseberg and psychology professor William Timberlake.\n"It is always nice to be recognized by one's peers," Estelle said. "In this case I am particularly honored to be included with the other stellar IU fellows, Rieseberg, Toth, Schick and Timberlake."\nOnly 10 other research institutions, including Harvard, Yale and Duke, had more fellows inducted in this year's class of 348.\nIt is not just the recognized scientists who are responsible for these accomplishments, however. Estelle said he had a lot of help from his students in improving the scientific community's understanding of auxin, a hormone responsible for plant growth and development.\n"We work with a small plant called Arabidopsis, also called 'mouse ear cress' or 'mustard weed.' Over the years we have learned a lot about how auxin works by isolating and studying mutant Arabidopsis plants," he said. "It is also important to note that I am being recognized for work that was performed by many wonderful graduate students, postdocs and technicians over 18 years."\nTimberlake's work is especially relevant because it is validating that experiments conducted on animals in a lab setting are indicative of their behavior in a natural setting.\n"I have done several series of experiments indicating that common laboratory learning paradigms engage mechanisms related to the functional behavior of animals in their ecological niches," Timberlake said. "This provides a specific basis for the belief that laboratory behavior has relevance for ecological behavior work and vice versa."\nAfter being named a fellow in such a prestigious science organization, there's not much else for these scientists to do but continue with the research that got them there in the first place.\nTimberlake looks to show even more connections between animal behavior in an experiment and in the natural habitat.\n"I am interested in increasing the number of lanes on the bridge between laboratory and field behavior by considering evolutionary trends on one hand and specific neurophysiology mechanisms on the other," Timberlake said. "I am especially interested in relating spatial and temporal learning in circumstances ranging from local foraging bouts to circadian rhythms."\nEstelle said he too hopes to complete his research into the working of auxin.\n"My group will continue to study plant hormones," Estelle said. "We have a long way to go before we have a complete understanding of how auxin works. Like all biological processes, it is very complex, and many questions still remain."\n-- Contact staff writer Chris Freiberg at wfreiber@indiana.edu.
(10/30/03 5:00am)
Since its founding in 1820, IU has gained a national reputation for itself in several respects, including basketball, business and partying. \nBut it's also deserving of another title: one of the most haunted campuses in the country.\nOne of the most haunted sites is Read Center. Sometime in the late '50s or early '60s, when it was an all women's dorm, legend has it that the quad was the site of a heinous murder.\nApparently, "the girl's boyfriend was a medical student and she tried to break up with him," Read secretary Kristi Tanksley says. "He didn't like this very much, so one night he snuck in, killed her in her room on either the second or third floor of Clark, and put her body in the boiler room. Since then it's been said that a girl in a bloody yellow nightgown roams the halls."\nSenior Rachel Merritt, a residential assistant at Read, recalls an encounter she had with the girl in yellow during the summer of 2002.\n"Before the semester started and the freshmen moved in, me and another RA were doing (bulletin) boards in the 'X' part of the dorms where all the halls intersect," Merritt says. "We had the doors propped open but they kept slamming shut, and every time we'd turn around, out of the corner of our eyes, we'd see a yellow nightgown. We were so scared we couldn't even finish the boards."\nOther students living in Read say they've had similar strange encounters.\n"Sometimes I'll be standing in my room working at my computer and the bathroom door will shut for no reason," freshman Kate Canepa says. "I know it's not the wind because I'll look at the blinds, and even if the windows are open, the blinds aren't moving, and I know it's not my roommate because she'll be at class or it will be late at night and she's asleep."\nThe paranormal activity is not contained to just the girls' dorms, however.\n"Around two in the morning my door will be locked, and just open wide and slam against the wall," freshman Luke Bauer says. "Then I'll look out in the hall, and no one's there. And over the summer, I'd be sitting in the room when it would be really hot, then it would suddenly get really cold for no reason, and then it would get hot again."\nThe girl in yellow is not the only spirit said to haunt Read. Another legend has it that many years ago an RA named Paula was feeling particularly overworked and flung herself down the sixth floor stairs. Supposedly her screams can still be heard annually on Dec. 12.\nLocated not far from Read, another IU building is said to be inhabited by the supernatural unknown -- the Indiana Memorial Union. \nThough not many students report encounters, custodians swear that the older portion of the IMU is haunted.\nLate at night maintenance people will turn off the lights in the Bryan Room, only to find when they exit the building someone (or something) has mysteriously turned the lights back on. They say it can happen as many as five times in a single night.\nMost of the paranormal activity at the IMU is centered around the west wing's fifth floor, where the elevator will mysteriously stop. \n"It was after midnight one night on the fifth floor when a custodian heard talking on his radio," says Ruth Stone, chairman of the folklore department. "He called everyone to see if anyone was calling him, but no one was. Just then, as he was turning to the elevator, he felt a cold breeze and saw the dark shadow of a man running past him."\nThere could be any number of spirits haunting the IMU, or several of them. Since the building was completed in 1932, it has been the site of several suicides, including that of a dog who jumped out a window. The most recent occurred in 1991.\nSome of the most grisly tales surround the Career Development Center, however.\nSeveral variations of the legend exist, but all agree that sometime before World War I a doctor who performed illegal abortions lived in the center. From there, things get a little murky. Some reports claim he accidentally \nkilled a girl during one the procedures, which led the police to an investigation.\nOthers say that his activities were reported to the authorities, though he was eventually released and ended up hanging himself in the basement.\nBut that didn't keep the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity from making the so-called abortion clinic its new home. Several members reported hearing babies crying, as well as mysterious footsteps and shadows.\nToday none of the employees at the center have had any strange encounters and many aren't even aware of the house's history.\nSurprisingly enough, not all of these stories involve actual ghosts. \nJunior Steven Kuhn, a ghost hunter and public relations representative for the Bloomington chapter of Indiana Ghost Trackers, says there are three different types of "ghosts."\n"The first type is the one that repeats. It's an emotional imprint that keeps repeating over time. It's not really an entity," Kuhn says. "The second is a presence that sometimes results after a quick death when the person doesn't know they're dead. They stick around for some reason.\n"The third category is just for other entities, things that don't fit the normal archetype," Kuhn says. \nThough most encounters with spirits leave the witness frightened, Kuhn assures ghosts have no interest in harming people.\n"Ninety percent of ghosts will not even interact with this plane of existence, and those that do don't hurt anyone," he says.\nKuhn also suggests that those looking for proof of a ghost need nothing more than a camera or camcorder.\n"A lot of times you'll see them on that, but not with the naked eye," he says.\nFolklore professor John Johnson is more skeptical.\n"These are all folk beliefs," Johnson says. "And what people believe is more important than science. What people believe dictates their actions, not science. People really do see things. Whether they're there for physicists to test is up for debate"
(10/29/03 10:34pm)
Since its founding in 1820, IU has gained a national reputation for itself in several respects, including basketball, business and partying. \nBut it's also deserving of another title: one of the most haunted campuses in the country.\nOne of the most haunted sites is Read Center. Sometime in the late '50s or early '60s, when it was an all women's dorm, legend has it that the quad was the site of a heinous murder.\nApparently, "the girl's boyfriend was a medical student and she tried to break up with him," Read secretary Kristi Tanksley says. "He didn't like this very much, so one night he snuck in, killed her in her room on either the second or third floor of Clark, and put her body in the boiler room. Since then it's been said that a girl in a bloody yellow nightgown roams the halls."\nSenior Rachel Merritt, a residential assistant at Read, recalls an encounter she had with the girl in yellow during the summer of 2002.\n"Before the semester started and the freshmen moved in, me and another RA were doing (bulletin) boards in the 'X' part of the dorms where all the halls intersect," Merritt says. "We had the doors propped open but they kept slamming shut, and every time we'd turn around, out of the corner of our eyes, we'd see a yellow nightgown. We were so scared we couldn't even finish the boards."\nOther students living in Read say they've had similar strange encounters.\n"Sometimes I'll be standing in my room working at my computer and the bathroom door will shut for no reason," freshman Kate Canepa says. "I know it's not the wind because I'll look at the blinds, and even if the windows are open, the blinds aren't moving, and I know it's not my roommate because she'll be at class or it will be late at night and she's asleep."\nThe paranormal activity is not contained to just the girls' dorms, however.\n"Around two in the morning my door will be locked, and just open wide and slam against the wall," freshman Luke Bauer says. "Then I'll look out in the hall, and no one's there. And over the summer, I'd be sitting in the room when it would be really hot, then it would suddenly get really cold for no reason, and then it would get hot again."\nThe girl in yellow is not the only spirit said to haunt Read. Another legend has it that many years ago an RA named Paula was feeling particularly overworked and flung herself down the sixth floor stairs. Supposedly her screams can still be heard annually on Dec. 12.\nLocated not far from Read, another IU building is said to be inhabited by the supernatural unknown -- the Indiana Memorial Union. \nThough not many students report encounters, custodians swear that the older portion of the IMU is haunted.\nLate at night maintenance people will turn off the lights in the Bryan Room, only to find when they exit the building someone (or something) has mysteriously turned the lights back on. They say it can happen as many as five times in a single night.\nMost of the paranormal activity at the IMU is centered around the west wing's fifth floor, where the elevator will mysteriously stop. \n"It was after midnight one night on the fifth floor when a custodian heard talking on his radio," says Ruth Stone, chairman of the folklore department. "He called everyone to see if anyone was calling him, but no one was. Just then, as he was turning to the elevator, he felt a cold breeze and saw the dark shadow of a man running past him."\nThere could be any number of spirits haunting the IMU, or several of them. Since the building was completed in 1932, it has been the site of several suicides, including that of a dog who jumped out a window. The most recent occurred in 1991.\nSome of the most grisly tales surround the Career Development Center, however.\nSeveral variations of the legend exist, but all agree that sometime before World War I a doctor who performed illegal abortions lived in the center. From there, things get a little murky. Some reports claim he accidentally \nkilled a girl during one the procedures, which led the police to an investigation.\nOthers say that his activities were reported to the authorities, though he was eventually released and ended up hanging himself in the basement.\nBut that didn't keep the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity from making the so-called abortion clinic its new home. Several members reported hearing babies crying, as well as mysterious footsteps and shadows.\nToday none of the employees at the center have had any strange encounters and many aren't even aware of the house's history.\nSurprisingly enough, not all of these stories involve actual ghosts. \nJunior Steven Kuhn, a ghost hunter and public relations representative for the Bloomington chapter of Indiana Ghost Trackers, says there are three different types of "ghosts."\n"The first type is the one that repeats. It's an emotional imprint that keeps repeating over time. It's not really an entity," Kuhn says. "The second is a presence that sometimes results after a quick death when the person doesn't know they're dead. They stick around for some reason.\n"The third category is just for other entities, things that don't fit the normal archetype," Kuhn says. \nThough most encounters with spirits leave the witness frightened, Kuhn assures ghosts have no interest in harming people.\n"Ninety percent of ghosts will not even interact with this plane of existence, and those that do don't hurt anyone," he says.\nKuhn also suggests that those looking for proof of a ghost need nothing more than a camera or camcorder.\n"A lot of times you'll see them on that, but not with the naked eye," he says.\nFolklore professor John Johnson is more skeptical.\n"These are all folk beliefs," Johnson says. "And what people believe is more important than science. What people believe dictates their actions, not science. People really do see things. Whether they're there for physicists to test is up for debate"
(10/28/03 6:31am)
With Halloween right around the corner, many students might be a little apprehensive of taking a walk around campus after nightfall.\nBut the Commission on Personal Safety is making efforts to improve safety by making sure walkways and parking lots are properly lit.\nThe Commission held its annual Fall Night Walk Monday around the campus, evaluating the poorly lit areas that students had most complained about.\n"We need to keep the campus sensitive to these problems," said Dean of Students Richard McKaig. "Most of the people on this walk drive to campus every day. They aren't walking around."\nThe group met in the parking lot across from the Service Building at the corner of Walnut Grove and Cottage Grove avenues, and wound its way through the University's many streets and walkways.\nMany said it is important for people to feel safe walking alone at night. \n"My impression is that in a crowd even darker places aren't as intimidating, but when you're alone you start hearing things," parking manager Doug Porter said. "If you're in a parking garage with a bunch of people, it's no big deal, but if you're all alone in that garage at 1 a.m. it feels a lot different."\nAlong with lighting problems on campus, a representative of the IU Student Association joined the group to alert walkers to concerns about the blue lights that warn the IU Police Department of emergencies.\n"We realize that sometimes the buttons are pushed as pranks or there's just not someone to respond, but there have been lots of complaints, and we're not sure if they're always responded to," said junior John Peck, health and safety director for the IU Student Association.\nA major challenge for the commission was understanding the ways people use the paths around campus.\n"Students just take off in a direction if there's not a fence in their way, and even then sometimes they'll just go over it," Porter said. "We advise them to use common sense and avoid areas that are naturally dark."\nHowever, he said there are no plans to do anything about Dunn's Woods, the area that students most complain about.\n"The theory is that they leave (Dunn's) Woods dark on purpose so people will stay out of it," Peck said.\nThe area would need to be cleared to properly light it, as well.\n"My understanding is that they would have to cut down the trees and basically make it into a parking lot," Carol McCord, assistant dean of women's affairs, said. "We don't want to ruin the beauty of the campus."\nAt the end of the walk, the commission recommended changes in lighting in the area behind Collins Living-Learning Center, the portion of Woodlawn Street just off campus, and the walkway between Foster Quad and the Kelley School of Business.\n"We're certainly not saving energy, but at least it's safe," Peck said.\nThe commission will hold another campus walk in the spring.\n-- Contact staff writer Chris Freiberg at wfreiber@indiana.edu.
(10/23/03 5:36am)
BioCrossroads, the recently christened central Indiana life science initiative, announced Tuesday the formation of Indiana Future Fund I, a more than $72 million capital pool that will invest in regional and national venture capital to encourage direct investment in life science opportunities within Indiana.\nThe Future Fund benefits the life sciences initiative, which was renamed BioCrossroads last week in reference to Indiana's motto "Crossroads of America."\nBioCrossroads' goal is to increase life science jobs in Indiana to benefit the lagging economy, officials said.\nIU and the IU Foundation invested in the life sciences fund as well as several other public and private investors.\n"As home to the nation's second largest medical school, (IU) has been on the cutting-edge of improving human health," IU President Adam Herbert said in a statement. "The Indiana Future Fund will be key to tapping into the economic potential of our research efforts, and contributing to Indiana's economic health in the process."\nThe original goal of the fund was to raise between $50 million and $150 million, but fund-raising ended nine months earlier in order to invest the fund as soon as possible.\nIt is likely that when the funds are used up in a year or two, a new fund-raiser will begin, Indianapolis attorney David Johnson told The Associated Press. Johnson was part of a committee that raised the money.\nAt least 60 percent of the fund must go to life science firms in Indiana, which is home to 1,200 life science companies.\n"The life science initiative is a great partnership which will be the basis for companies to license, produce and create products involved in health care," BioCrossroads public and media relations science writer Eric Schoch said.\nAlso this week, BioCrossroads, in partnership with Roche Diagnostics, announced it will hold a conference on biosensors Wednesday at the IU-Purdue University Indianapolis Conference Center.\nBiosensors are small devices that can detect changes in light, sound and chemicals, among other uses. They are one of the eight target opportunities BioCrossroads sees future growth in.\n"The conference will feature company presentations, panels and the opportunity to search for potential partnership opportunities," BioCrossroads spokesman Jenny Cebalo said.\nFor more information on the initiative, log on to www.biocrossroads.com.\n-- Contact staff writer Chris Freiberg at wfreiber@indiana.edu.
(10/23/03 4:00am)
Don't get me wrong, I like Nintendo.\nAfter Atari crashed the video game market in 1983 with abysmal sales of their E.T. game, who was it but Nintendo to resurrect the home console in North America. If it weren't for the NES, dorms across the campus would have a big blank spot in front of their TVs where a PlayStation 2, GameCube or Xbox now resides.\nI fondly remember days long past when I would sit in front of the TV playing classics like Super Mario Bros. 3 and The Legend of Zelda on Nintendo's bulky grey box.\nI even followed Mario into 3-D when the Nintendo 64 was released in 1996. And to this day, when I'm on a long road trip, or just killing time between classes, I'll whip out my shiny cobalt GameBoy Advance SP and race a few laps of Mario Kart.\nThen, in 2001, Nintendo unveiled their next generation console, the GameCube, and things have been going down hill for them ever since.\nWhile Sony and Microsoft's machines can play CDs, DVDs and even let gamers rip music to the hard drive in the case of the Xbox, Nintendo chose to release a console that can play games.\nThe launch games weren't even that great. Waverace: Blue Storm was a pale imitation of the N64 classic, and Luigi's Mansion couldn't compare to any game the plumber's older brother starred in.\nLast winter, the Japanese electronics giant bounced back with hits like Mario Sunshine and Metroid Prime, but 2003 has just seen blow after blow for the company. SEGA announced last spring that they would no longer produce sports games for the GameCube, and publishers Eidos and Acclaim followed suit this fall, canceling all of their upcoming lineups.\nOther publishers such as Atari, who recently cancelled the GCN version of Driver 3, are picking and choosing what games to release for the system. In September, the company announced their first loss since going public in 1962. Nintendo predicted a profit of $135 million for the first half of the fiscal year, but now predicts a loss of $27 million.\nWith only 80,000 GameCubes sold between April and June, the GameBoy Advance is the only thing keeping Nintendo from much bigger losses. In fact, it's been the success of the company's handhelds that have kept them in the black the past few years as Sony's domination of the console market has grown.\nLate last month, Nintendo dropped the price of a new GameCube from $149 to $99, and since then some outlets have reported sales of the system have quadrupled. \nI just have to wonder though if this is too little too late.\nLet's take a little trip back in time to the recent downward spiral of former console manufacturer, SEGA.\nIn the early '90s, SEGA was riding high on the success of their Genesis. Then in 1995 they released a system called the Saturn to little fanfare. This system launched without a Sonic game, SEGA's mascot character, much like the GameCube launched without a Mario game.\nThe Saturn struggled for three years as SEGA released lackluster sequels for the system and swore up and down its successor would be better. \nIn 1999, they released the Dreamcast. At the time it was the most powerful system available, featuring a strong lineup of launch games, and many third party publishers who had passed up the Saturn pledged support for the DC.\nThen the momentum of the strong launch slowed to a crawl. Third parties dropped the system, SEGA canceled many of their own upcoming games and massive price drops soon followed.\nEventually SEGA abandoned the DC in 2001 and now makes games for Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft's consoles. It was a smart business move. If they hadn't we might not have any SEGA at all today.\nNintendo hasn't screwed up quite as badly as SEGA did with the Saturn, but they're certainly on the same path. Even the future success of Nintendo's cash cow, the GameBoy, is in question as Sony is releasing a competitor, the Playstation Portable, late next year.\nYet for some reason Nintendo has pledged to go down fighting. \nSuccessors to both the GCN and GBA are in the works. It would break my heart to see the makers of Mario make the move to multi-console gaming, but if they don't, gamers might not have any classic Nintendo characters to play with some day.\nAnd that would break my heart even more.
(10/22/03 11:57pm)
Don't get me wrong, I like Nintendo.\nAfter Atari crashed the video game market in 1983 with abysmal sales of their E.T. game, who was it but Nintendo to resurrect the home console in North America. If it weren't for the NES, dorms across the campus would have a big blank spot in front of their TVs where a PlayStation 2, GameCube or Xbox now resides.\nI fondly remember days long past when I would sit in front of the TV playing classics like Super Mario Bros. 3 and The Legend of Zelda on Nintendo's bulky grey box.\nI even followed Mario into 3-D when the Nintendo 64 was released in 1996. And to this day, when I'm on a long road trip, or just killing time between classes, I'll whip out my shiny cobalt GameBoy Advance SP and race a few laps of Mario Kart.\nThen, in 2001, Nintendo unveiled their next generation console, the GameCube, and things have been going down hill for them ever since.\nWhile Sony and Microsoft's machines can play CDs, DVDs and even let gamers rip music to the hard drive in the case of the Xbox, Nintendo chose to release a console that can play games.\nThe launch games weren't even that great. Waverace: Blue Storm was a pale imitation of the N64 classic, and Luigi's Mansion couldn't compare to any game the plumber's older brother starred in.\nLast winter, the Japanese electronics giant bounced back with hits like Mario Sunshine and Metroid Prime, but 2003 has just seen blow after blow for the company. SEGA announced last spring that they would no longer produce sports games for the GameCube, and publishers Eidos and Acclaim followed suit this fall, canceling all of their upcoming lineups.\nOther publishers such as Atari, who recently cancelled the GCN version of Driver 3, are picking and choosing what games to release for the system. In September, the company announced their first loss since going public in 1962. Nintendo predicted a profit of $135 million for the first half of the fiscal year, but now predicts a loss of $27 million.\nWith only 80,000 GameCubes sold between April and June, the GameBoy Advance is the only thing keeping Nintendo from much bigger losses. In fact, it's been the success of the company's handhelds that have kept them in the black the past few years as Sony's domination of the console market has grown.\nLate last month, Nintendo dropped the price of a new GameCube from $149 to $99, and since then some outlets have reported sales of the system have quadrupled. \nI just have to wonder though if this is too little too late.\nLet's take a little trip back in time to the recent downward spiral of former console manufacturer, SEGA.\nIn the early '90s, SEGA was riding high on the success of their Genesis. Then in 1995 they released a system called the Saturn to little fanfare. This system launched without a Sonic game, SEGA's mascot character, much like the GameCube launched without a Mario game.\nThe Saturn struggled for three years as SEGA released lackluster sequels for the system and swore up and down its successor would be better. \nIn 1999, they released the Dreamcast. At the time it was the most powerful system available, featuring a strong lineup of launch games, and many third party publishers who had passed up the Saturn pledged support for the DC.\nThen the momentum of the strong launch slowed to a crawl. Third parties dropped the system, SEGA canceled many of their own upcoming games and massive price drops soon followed.\nEventually SEGA abandoned the DC in 2001 and now makes games for Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft's consoles. It was a smart business move. If they hadn't we might not have any SEGA at all today.\nNintendo hasn't screwed up quite as badly as SEGA did with the Saturn, but they're certainly on the same path. Even the future success of Nintendo's cash cow, the GameBoy, is in question as Sony is releasing a competitor, the Playstation Portable, late next year.\nYet for some reason Nintendo has pledged to go down fighting. \nSuccessors to both the GCN and GBA are in the works. It would break my heart to see the makers of Mario make the move to multi-console gaming, but if they don't, gamers might not have any classic Nintendo characters to play with some day.\nAnd that would break my heart even more.
(10/21/03 6:37am)
The rapidly changing music industry faced even more bad news late last week when Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, announced plans to eliminate 800 jobs.\nThis announcement comes on top of the 550 jobs Universal has cut since late 2002, accounting for an 11 percent decrease of its total workforce, according to The Wall Street Journal.\nOther top music companies have been hit hard as well since the advent of peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, such as Kazaa. The Wall Street Journal cited Sony Music Entertainment's elimination of 1,000 jobs in March, and EMI's elimination of 1,900 jobs since late 2001. \nOther companies such as Time Warner and BMG are considering mergers, which could result in even more job cuts. \nUniversal Music Group Chairman and CEO Doug Morris told The Wall Street Journal last week that piracy is to blame for the cutbacks.\n"This is really a direct result of ... the physical and Internet piracy which is causing tremendous suffering in the music business," Morris said.\nThe problems of big music companies have had mixed effects locally. Charlie Titche, owner and manager of All Ears on 10th Street, has seen no decline in business as a result of years of Internet piracy. \n"We fill a niche that can't be filled by Internet downloads," Titche said. "We carry things that can't be downloaded anywhere else, or people will download a sample of something and come here to get more. Our customers are more likely to buy something by say Number Party than Britney Spears. We don't cater to the Top 40 mainstream."\nBrett Hayden, manager of TD's CDs and LPs on Kirkwood, however has seen a big dip in business since he began working there 10 years ago.\n"Everything was pretty good for awhile, then people started being able to copy CDs right before Napster came out, and things started going downhill," Hayden said. "Now people just say they can download things so they don't have to buy them."\nSales have picked up a little this year, which Hayden attributes to the lawsuits the RIAA has filed against file-sharers.\n"The lawsuits scare people," he said. "They're scared of getting in trouble and having to pay hefty fines, but the recording industry has to do this if they want to make money."\nHayden also believes that TD's is doing better than a lot of other places because it's a local store.\n"A lot of the more liberal people and hippies you find on college campuses don't want to buy from a corporate place," he said. "They want to find the local market, not some guy or corporation that already has millions."\nIn September, Universal attempted to boost sales on its CDs by dropping its suggested price to $13, though Hayden says this is only a short-term solution.\n"They're telling all the papers they're lowering prices, but in the long term, that only means less money for the stores. Maybe it would help if all labels would lower prices though," he said.
(10/16/03 5:27am)
The very best players are treated like celebrities, the biggest games are televised and the next day, the scores are printed in the paper.\nThis is no professional sport, however. It's a game, one that most Americans have never even heard about -- but it's immensely popular in Asia.\nIt's called Go. The closest Western game it can be compared to is chess, but it's much more complex. In fact, computers still can't beat humans at Go because there are so many possible moves in each turn.\nNow, Go has spread across the Pacific Ocean to IU.\nA little more than two years ago, Chris Horn, a recent IU graduate, and a few of his friends heard in their cognitive science class about the difficulties computers have playing Go. Horn and his friends learned how to play the game from books and then approached the Asian Culture Center about starting a Go club.\n"They were happy to have us," junior Andrew Allred said. "They bought the boards and stones, and they even made us popcorn and drinks."\nPlayers on campus meet at 5 p.m. every Tuesday, and they are even planning a tournament some time later this year.\nSome people say Go, which began in either China or Tibet more than 4,000 years ago, has a certain addictive quality to it. The game is similar to puzzle video games like Tetris. \nThe game is played on a wooden board criss-crossed by black lines that make up 361 spaces. Each player then uses smooth black or white beads to surround the other player's beads. The other players beads then are captured. This continues until there is no more usable space on the board. \n"It looks really simple, but there are lots of interesting possibilities during a game," Horn said.\nThe game of Go is so addictive that some players say they begin to see strategies from the game in real life.\n"It changes the way you look at things. Sometimes you have these really freaky 'Go epiphanies,'" Allred said. "You look at a tree and see Go patterns, or one day I was telling Bryan (Bergert) that Go was giving me a better understanding of our military flaws with the war in Iraq."\nGo has a bit of a history with war strategy. Japan's island-hopping strategy during World War II is said to be based off of Go techniques. In fact, the U.S. military encouraged GIs to play the game, hoping it would give them a better understanding of the Japanese mind.\nFor a time, Go declined in popularity in the Far East, a status it still has in some countries such as China. \n"It's not that popular," said Jing Li Cheng, a Go-playing graduate student from China. "Only people who are really interested in it or families with a tradition of playing Go play it. Some see it as an opportunity for their kids to get famous and send their kids to schools." \nRecently though, the Japanese have taken a renewed interest in Go thanks to the anime "Hikaru's Go."\nAllred said he has a theory as to why Go is still widely played four millennia since its creation.\n"Go is a very territorial game," he said. "And everything humans do is territorial."\n-- Contact staff writer Chris Freiberg at wfreiber@indiana.edu.
(10/06/03 5:55am)
Graduate student Mike Kiss always saw London as the financial capital of the world, so when the opportunity came earlier this year for him to intern at the public relations firm Edelman London, he immediately seized it.\n"(London) has a history of major global influence, and I really wanted to see these aspects first hand," Kiss said. "The convenience of the English language helped too."\nEach year more and more students are taking advantage of internships overseas. The Office of Overseas Studies offers a dozen programs in other countries, including Barcelona, Spain, Freiberg, Germany, and Melbourne, Australia.\nInternships completed through the Office of Overseas Studies count for credit in conjunction with the study abroad program. \nStudents apply for this program, and if accepted, they work with an internship coordinator abroad to write a resume appropriate for the country. \nThe coordinator then searches for internship possibilities in that country. Usually the students interview for the positions when they arrive in the country.\nThe major advantage to an internship in another country is being able to look at a profession through the eyes of another culture.\n"An internship experience abroad introduces a student to a local culture and another, possibly different way of looking at a task or field of study," said assistant director of the Office of Overseas Studies Paige Weting.\nMany companies are also looking to hire students with a better understanding of the world.\n"Students interning abroad also demonstrate global competencies that so often employers are looking for today," Weting said. "This cannot necessarily be done interning in the U.S."\nAlthough Kiss didn't get his internship through IU, he is still experiencing these benefits.\n"When I interviewed for an internship in the U.S. last summer the employers said how wonderful it was that I had the international experience of working in London," Kiss said. "Many opportunities have become available to me that otherwise might not have because of my internship."\nAnother way for students to intern abroad is through the Career Development Center.\nThe CDC has a library of books with information about interning overseas that students are free to peruse, as well as information on their Web site, www.indiana.edu/~career/internships.\nThe development center can also put students in contact with a company such as CDS International, which will arrange an internship with a company overseas for a fee.\n"The Internet can also be a good place to search for international internships," said Career Development Center director Pat Donahue. "Sometimes a company will decide not to put something in a book or market it, and you have to look it up."\nDonahue also advised that students looking to pursue an internship in another country do it during the summer months, as it might interfere with their school work if they can't get credits for it.\n"I cannot emphasize enough how absolutely vital internships are to getting a job today," Donahue said. "And an international internship just looks incredible on a resume"
(10/02/03 4:00am)
At the very least, Rob Zombie deserves credit for being true to himself.\nHis creepy rock has not always been the most popular music on the market, but it's what he believes in producing and he hasn't changed it for anybody in the past 20 years.\nGreatest Hits: Past, Present, and Future features all of the songs a fan could want. From White Zombie's "More Human Than Human" to "Never Gonna Stop" from 2001's The Sinister Urge, all of the very best songs are here.\nAnd unlike a lot of other greatest hits collections, these songs have aged well. It's just as much fun rocking out to "Dragula" as it was in 1998.\nThe newer songs are the only things that really hold the album back. "Brick House 2003" from the House of 1,000 Corpses soundtrack has got to be one of the worst covers ever recorded. The two totally new songs on the album, "Two-Lane Blacktop" and "Girl on Fire" fare a bit better. It's not that they're bad songs by any means; they just don't compare particularly well to Zombie at his best.\nIt's definitely not for everyone, but for those looking for a great heavy metal compilation, this is the CD to get this fall.
(10/01/03 10:22pm)
At the very least, Rob Zombie deserves credit for being true to himself.\nHis creepy rock has not always been the most popular music on the market, but it's what he believes in producing and he hasn't changed it for anybody in the past 20 years.\nGreatest Hits: Past, Present, and Future features all of the songs a fan could want. From White Zombie's "More Human Than Human" to "Never Gonna Stop" from 2001's The Sinister Urge, all of the very best songs are here.\nAnd unlike a lot of other greatest hits collections, these songs have aged well. It's just as much fun rocking out to "Dragula" as it was in 1998.\nThe newer songs are the only things that really hold the album back. "Brick House 2003" from the House of 1,000 Corpses soundtrack has got to be one of the worst covers ever recorded. The two totally new songs on the album, "Two-Lane Blacktop" and "Girl on Fire" fare a bit better. It's not that they're bad songs by any means; they just don't compare particularly well to Zombie at his best.\nIt's definitely not for everyone, but for those looking for a great heavy metal compilation, this is the CD to get this fall.