Original Article: http://dartreview.com/archives/2003/06/08/week_in_review.php
Sunday, June 8, 2003
Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha Gonna Do?
Parents of Seniors: Welcome to Hanover. Keep an eye out for shady characters. Three inmates—including two convicted murderers— escaped from a Concord, NH prison on Wednesday, only to be caught the next day.
Dressed in prison-issue green jumpsuits, Philip J. Dick, Christopher McNeil, and Kevin Gil cut through a razor fence at approximatly 10:20 AM, June 4. The inmates escaped through a residential area unpursued. Dick and Gil were both serving lengthy sentences for murder; McNeil had been reimprisoned for parole violations including drugs, forgery, and possession of stolen property.
The men spent their sentences housed in a medium-security prison, and are, therefore, only considered kind-of-likely to attack civilians for fun-and-profit.
Dartmouth Safety & Security did not increase sevurity while the men were on the loose. All three fugitive were caught Thursday at a campground in Plymouth, Mass.
Plagiarizing Plagiarism
Cut-and-paste plagiarism is an amazing thing. Take Microsoft Word: Ctrl + C; Ctrl + V; fresh off the press ready to go. Two clicks and you've got yourself a New York Times article, or possibly this weekpiece.
Seems everyone is getting in on other people's goods. The Chronicle of Higher Education was fresh on the trail of the ultimate plagiarist. Michael Heberling—an author at the Chronicle and president of Baker College for Graduate Studies—read an article written in Syllabus magazine that looked remarkably like his own piece. The subject of the plagiarist's piece: plagiarism.
The plagiarized article 'Probing for Plagiarism in the Virtual Classroom' shared several verbatim passages found within Mr. Heberling's article 'Maintaining Academic Integrity in Online Education.' The Chronicle's editors contacted Syllabus magazine, and the offending author, a graduate student, apologized for any passages accidentally cut-and-pasted into her own article. Her excuse: 'deadline pressure.'
Two Down, Seven to Go
Debo the cat, of Stanton, Michigan,, recently survived getting hit twice with crossbow arrows, including once straight through the head. Miraculously, despite already havingFIV, the feline form of AIDS, Debo, an eight-year-old black and white cat, demonstrated his unwillingness to be held down by the man by making a full recovery, minus one eye, through which the arrow went directly.
Debo still refuses to show any signs of slowing down. In the words of his veternarian, 'even with the arrow in, the cat's eating and rubbing and walking.' Courageous little Debo still asserts his territory and takes what is rightfully his. He is truly an example to all those who are marginalized, be they human or animal.
Except for that mouse he marginalized for dinner last week.
UC Irvine Under Fire
David Mintzer, a student government legislator at the University of California, Irvine, introduced a resolution in May that denounced the university's leftist bias in the classroom. Amazingly, the resolution passed unanimously (9-0, with two abstentions). Shortly after the resolution's passage, Ron Huff, Dean of the School of Social Ecology, sent out a proselytizing e-mail to all faculty and staff. No, it didn't proselytize the faculty. Rather, it essentially blacklisted Mr. Mintzer and Arthur Asuncion, the author of an article the Irvine Review.
The rightly embarassed Mr. Huff reacted childishly. Two gems from his insulting e-mail:
"...[I]t is disappointing that these public allegations have been made against our School prior to the completion of the consultation process that I had recommended to David. I am copying David on this message, and I again encourage him to follow up with our chairs and with our elected faculty chair, as I recently recommended.
'The publication of Mr. Asuncion's article, including the allegations made by David in his proposed resolution, have publicly called into question the integrity of our faculty without our having an adequate chance to respond to David's concerns, and this is most unfortunate since it is always best (and most fair) to address concerns privately prior to airing them publicly.'
For Irvine to ever compete with even with other public universities in the state, it ought to not only tolerate, but actively encourage criticism, both private and public.
Ben Stein Blacklisted
At colleges at universities all across the nation, commencement exercises are not only the time when degrees are awarded, but also when nationally-famous speakers are sought. It would seem natural that a small school like Cowell College, a residential college at the University of California-Santa Cruz, might try to attract a top-name speaker, but end up settling for a lesser renowned orator.So it was quite a surprise to most of its students that Cowell turned down an offer from the comedian Ben Stein, host of the game show 'Win Ben Stein's Money' and famous for his role in the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off ('Bueller?Bueller?') Much less known is the fact that Stein, a native of Silver Spring, Maryland, served as a speechwriter in the Nixon administration and taught classes at UCSC. A student at Cowell suggested that Stein speak at the College's commencement exercises, and he accepted the invitation, even offering to waive his normally hefty speaking fee. Administrators at Cowell then disinvited Stein, first claiming that he had never actually been invited, then that his speaking fee was too expensive, and finally falling back on the excuse that he would create a 'bad vibe' on campus and citing the need for a lengthy review process.A USCC student speculated that 'if Ralph Nader wanted to [speak at a] Santa Cruz graduation,' the leftist administration 'wouldn't have that same problem.'
Beer Cream
Doddington's Dairies of Scotland is giving Ben and Jerry's ice cream a run for its money. Their latest flavor: Newcastle Brown Ale. Doddington's chose Newcastle because they were seeking something both 'distinctive' and a 'strong identity with the region.' The ice cream, apparently, is a reflection of the the people and their culture, which is accurate, considering it's Scotland.
For true alcoholics, take solace elsewhere. Newcastle Brown Ale ice cream is a measly 1% alcohol, just enough to 'highlight Newcastle Brown's unique flavour characteristics.'