E-News

By wpengine | October 2, 2003

Like an Author

Madonna wrote her infamous book entitled Sex when her career was at an all-time high over a decade ago. And so, instead of trying to sell another album that would not have been noticed anyway, she has decided that as a result of her career being in the crapper, she will instead write another book. The Material Girl is pleased to announce that this one is a Children’s book entitled The English Roses. The book will appear in the top position of next week’s edition of The New York Times’s best-seller list for Children’s books; has been printed in over 100 countries, and it has been getting acclaim from critics around the world. The English Roses is a 48-page tale of a clique of four girls, the English Roses, who hate a smart and beautiful, but misunderstood classmate Binah. With the help of a fairy godmother, the English Roses eventually come to understand and accept Binah. This book will be the first of a series of five; the second one is due out around November 10.

Piracy Woes

Hey kids! Remember all that mess about downloading, with the RIAA suing the underwear off college students? Remember how it looked like the shitstorm might actually be blowing over? Think again. Yes, that’s right. Now the movie industry is taking a stand and are cracking down on downloading films. The industry’s trade association has started a piracy awareness campaign for movies and television. Studios want to put electronic watermarks on prints so they can tell who is abetting the file sharing. Furthermore, they want to start programs in schools that teach children the particulars of copyright laws, and that stealing is B-A-D, BAD. Head honchos are also getting a little nervous that if they distribute DVDs to members of the Academy before the Oscars, the movies will end up on the internet. Essentially, all the really rich production company heads have their panties on a little too tight, and they don’t like the idea that they may lose a little money. They are scared that kids won’t stop downloading and that it will turn into a WORLDWIDE CONSPIRACY! Dude, we just want free movies. You really might want to read the studio heads’ reaction, it’s hilarious.

There is no more

Well, it’s the end of the week and I have run out of news. There is just not much going on. I’m really sorry. But here are some snippets that are newsworthy but not enough for an entire paragraph. Dave Matthews has a new solo album called Some Devil. Uma Thurman is in a new Quentin Tarantino movie, Kill Bill Part 1. There are a lot of swords and fighting, and it looks like a crazy movie. Rather, I think I’ll just watch Pulp Fiction again instead. The Emmy’s were last week, but they were uneventful. Billy Crystal has been asked to host the Oscars, again. Kelsey Grammer, after witnessing all the success of Arnold Schwarzenegger in politics, is considering running for U.S. Senate. Magnum P.I. is going to be made into a movie, but Tom Selleck will not be involved. The Miss America Pageant and the Emmys both bottomed out in the ratings and were beaten by Survivor. The great America pastimes, beautiful women and rich people, are no longer pastimes. People would instead like to watch dirty people run around and try to beat each other in games involving sticks and collecting water, even though it is merely a test of how long they can be malnourished before being kicked off the island. People want to watch other people eat bugs, and there is no entertainment news.

Archived article by Amanda Hodes

Dean Courts College Vote

By wpengine October 3, 2003

Today Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, named by the Des Moines Register as the frontrunner of the ten candidates running for the Democratic presidential nomination, is beginning his “Raise the Roots Tour,” a four-day, seven-city trip during which Dean will court the votes of college and high school students. He will be visiting such cities as Charleston, S.C.; Seattle, Wash.; Iowa City, Iowa and Keene, N.H. Dean spoke to several college newspapers in a conference call yesterday in which he emphasized the role of college students in the political system. “A lot of people have asked me why is this campaign catching on with people your age,” he said. “What we are bringing to this country is a set of principles and a set of hopes that we can do better and we will do better.” Dean was critical of the Bush administration for the current state of the economy, often identifying President George W. Bush’s benefactors, including Ken Lay of Enron, as those who benefit most from Bush’s tax cuts. Dean supports the full repeal of those tax cuts and encouraging renewable energy sources, broadband communication and altering trade agreements to encourage economic growth. “I think that one of the biggest issues for your generation is the same as it is for everybody else: jobs, financial security. [Bush] said that we would not pass the problems of this generation onto the next generation. That is obviously not true. What he’s done with a half-trillion dollars of national debt is only going to get bigger.” Dean also discussed his stance on better ways to ameliorate the increased tuition costs of higher education. Dean said that extending Americorps and relieving some state-funded programs, such as special education, with federal funding would help students pay for college tuition. Last March, Cornell increased the annual tuition of in-state residents by $1,360. “My real interest in higher education is in doing things better, in restoring [aid] rather than cutting [it],” Dean said. “My particular interest is Americorps. I’m really interested in giving a service option to kids, particularly in high school, that’s going to help them pay for college education and teach them about what other people in America are like.” Dean was also critical of President Bush’s stance on affirmative action, which he claimed was divisive. “When the president used the word ‘quota’ to describe the University of Michigan affirmative action program, it wasn’t just that he didn’t like the University of Michigan affirmative action code,” he said. “Quotas, as every pollster in America knows, is a word that is designed to appeal to the fear that members of the minority community will take [somebody’s] job.” Students React “I see Dean doing to the Democratic Party pretty much what Ronald Reagan did to the Republican Party,” said Peter S. Cohl ’04, president of Students for Dean. “Reagan was the person whom the Democrats thought had no chance, that he was too conservative. Now Republicans are saying that Dean has no chance, that he is too liberal.” Cohl noted that Dean’s galvanizing effect on voters, particularly college students, was because “Democrats want to be Democrats again. Democrats were tired of being Republican-like.” Dean, who rose to prominence largely because of his antiwar stance, was critical of Bush’s foreign policy. “We want a government … that’s going to treat other governments honorably, so we can be proud to be Americans when we go abroad,” he said. “The president does not understand defense and he’s not particularly strong on defense either. He’s about to allow North Korea to become a nuclear power because he won’t sit down and talk with [Kim] because he doesn’t like him. I think it’s time for petulance not to be the driving force of American foreign policy.” Tim Lim ’06, president of the Cornell Democrats, noted that Dean is currently the frontrunner but that there are other strong candidates in the primary as well. “I think that the addition of [former Gen. Wesley] Clark really changed the race; his leadership qualities, Army experience, the fact that he’s a Southerner and the fact that he can repute a lot of Bush’s statements makes him a strong candidate,” Lim said. “[John] Kerry definitely has the support of a lot of Democrats. He’s got a stable and big organization. I think now he has to distance himself from other candidates and I think he has a really good chance in the Northeast and Midwest and even the South. Clark’s military background will hurt him, though. [Dick] Gephardt — one word sums it up, labor. That’s been distancing Gephardt from the other campaigns.” Dean has raised approximately $14.8 million for the third fundraising quarter, largely from small donors using the Internet. Dean was upbeat about the role of college students in the political process. “The capacity for hard work, particularly among your generation, is extraordinary,” he said. “I have to say, it’s a lot better than it was when I was your age.” Archived article by David Hillis
Don't Agree? Dump It.

By wpengine October 3, 2003

Newspapers on opposite sides of the political spectrum have suffered from the phenomenon of dumping, in which stacks of papers are thrown in the garbage. At various points, both the conservative Cornell Review and liberal Turn Left newspapers have been discarded in bulk, much to the concern of their staffs. Joseph Sabia grad, a Sun columnist who previously wrote for the Review, said that the paper has been dumped multiple times in the past. “There’s no doubt that the Review is a specific target,” he said. Although he did not deny that Turn Left has been dumped, he said, “It happens with far greater frequency to a conservative publication like the Review.” One of the founders of Turn Left, Tsee Yuan Lee ’02, said that the paper was dumped occasionally when he was on the staff. He recalled placing stacks of papers on racks one day and then returning the next to find them gone. “We didn’t think we were that popular, so someone was dumping it,” he said. Confirming that possibility, Ilya Ryzhov ’04 found a stack of Turn Lefts last year in a garbage can in a laundry room of one of the class halls on West Campus. Neither newspaper has found out who has been discarding the issues. Sabia said that the Review staff considered installing cameras above the distribution bins but found it impractical. Although the offenders remain unknown, staff on both papers offered various explanations of their motives. “They probably feel either really threatened by the paper or they really hate the ideology so much that they would [dump it],” Lee said. “We know there’s some people who can’t stand other people being liberal.” However, others from Turn Left disagreed. “I don’t think it was particularly against Turn Left,” said Andrew Garib ’06, editor-in-chief of the publication. “I don’t think Turn Left is controversial enough or strong enough of opinion [to be dumped].” As for the Review, editor-in-chief Joseph Pylman ’04 noted that the newspaper gets dumped most often on North Campus, particularly Robert Purcell Community Center. He speculated that freshmen want to show political activism on campus in some way and carry out that motivation by dumping papers. Sabia also observed that the Review tends to be dumped when the paper tackles “big issues,” such as their post-Sept. 11 issue. Garib offered an alternative explanation for the disappearance of some of the papers. He had previously thought that it was the administration and staff quickly removing political papers from public places, treating them as extra clutter. He thinks that perhaps the University does not see political newspapers as doing a public service but merely propaganda, and values them less than other publications. Staff at both Turn Left and the Cornell Review think that the University administration should take action in some way, possibly by issuing an official statement against the incidents. Also, Lee believes that the administration should impose a fine if the police or administration catches someone dumping a stack of papers. However, Pylman said that the administration has dismissed most of the Review’s complaints in the past. “The response that they’ve given us in the past is, ‘Well, you had it coming,'” he said. Some faculty also believe that the University should take a stand on the issue. “I think it violates the spirit of the University,” said Prof. Richard Baer, natural resources. “It’s a case where the administration should take a sharp stand and discipline students when they do that.” However, Kent Hubbell ’67, the Robert W. and Elizabeth C. Staley Dean of Students, said that the administration does not condone dumping. “We certainly believe this shouldn’t happen, and when we observe it happening, we try to prevent it,” he said. Sabia also thinks that the Student Assembly should pass the Cambridge Declaration, a statement that condemns dumping newspapers, among other issues. Despite their political differences, both sides condemned the dumpings. “The whole tactic of dumping newspapers … is cowardly, it’s avoiding the issue,” Pylman said. Lee agreed and also pointed out that dumping student publications wastes Cornell students’ money, since both papers are funded through the Student Assembly Finance Committee. “If you have to resort to destroying other people’s property, you are threatened by the other group,” he said. “It’s a sign of weakness on anybody’s part.” Faculty and University administration also denounced the dumpings. “I think it’s regrettable when any media is vandalized,” Hubbell said. “It interferes with free dissemination of these newspapers.” Students not associated with either of the organizations also felt that the dumpings are inappropriate. “I don’t think that’s really a good response,” said Daniel Sternberg ’06. “You look kind of fascist, so to speak.” Similarly, Kalina Black ’07 said, “There’s a difference between free speech and freedom to destroy.” Archived article by Shannon Brescher