By Benjamin Keep

Everyone wants you to click “agree.” This has got to be the 15th time I’ve updated iTunes; each time, I’m greeted by the ubiquitous end user license agreement (EULA) and each time I scroll quickly to the bottom to click “agree” without reading the theretos and the wherefores and the hereins. Contract readability may have improved since the Marx Brothers famously parodied it (“The party of the first part shall be known in this contract as the party of the first part”), but contract language remains obscure.

In the past few years, social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace have brought together millions of people around the world. At Cornell, the Facebook phenomenon is widespread, with more than 52,000 active users in the Cornell network. Everyone from alumni to incoming students have found their places within Facebook’s groups and forums; even President David Skorton has a profile.

Tommy Bruce, vice president of University communications, appreciates the influence that new Internet technologies present. “It is very important for any institution, Cornell included, to participate in the Internet world,” Bruce said. “However, all Cornellians should behave without violating the rules.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hackers broke into the Yahoo! e-mail account that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin used for official business as Alaska's governor, revealing as evidence a few inconsequential personal messages she has received since John McCain selected her as his running mate.

"This is a shocking invasion of the governor's privacy and a violation of law. The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these e-mails will destroy them," the McCain campaign said in a statement.

The Secret Service contacted The Associated Press on Wednesday and asked for copies of the leaked e-mails, which circulated widely on the Internet. The AP did not comply.

Definitions:

Twit: twerp; someone who is regarded as contemptible.

Twitter: a succession of chirps as uttered by birds; to utter a succession of bird’s chirps.