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16 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7,200 H & SARAH HODGES I AM LEGEND. HEAR ME ROAR Sarah Hodges is a senior psychology major from Durham E-MAIL SEHOOGESOEMAILUNC.EDU Paging Dr. uncfan9 to diagnostic medicine The Internet provides us with a wealth of knowledge. TV listings and dictionary defi nitions are available at the dick of a mouse nowadays. The nature of the Internet, however, makes a lot of the information we glean from it unreliable. People need to stop considering themselves experts because of what they've read online and rethink their blind trust in this resource. The resources available online far outnumber those that we would find in one of our campus librar ies. For even- fact on the Internet, however, there are numerous falla cies. In this "information age." we have sacrificed quality for quantity. AT-LARCF But this is only COLUMNIST *** beprounS of LULUmNIb I theproye,,, We can find reliable informa tion on the Internet if only we are willing to wade through pages and pages of junk. The problem is that many people are not willing to spend the time and effort it takes to track down reliable sources. How many times have you been told that Wikipedia is not a reli able source of information for your research papers? Yet the Web site is frequently near the top of any list of Google search results. The site touts itself as "the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit’ Who doesn't want to share their infinite wisdom with the rest of the world? Of course, when everyone posts their conflicting perceptions, there is bound to be plenty of inac curate information. So why do people go to Wikipedia? People frequent the site for a quick and painless expla nation in simple language. The Internet has made us lazy. The fact that anyone can make a professional-looking Web site and pass themselves off as an expert makes finding reliable information on the Internet that much harder. When you read a letter to the editor in The (Raleigh) News and Observer or Cosmopolitan, you take into account that it is someone's (possibly uneducated or ill-informed) opinion. But as soon as you slap that opinion on a Web site with some hyperlinks and animated gifs, you've got yourself an “expert" The fact is that many people would rather risk their knowledge with unreliable information than trek to the library. Some people would even risk their health rather than be bothered to make an appointment with their doctor. Second-year medical students seem to be particularly susceptible to bouts of hypochondria. They see symptoms of the diseases they are studying not only in themselves, but also in friends and family. Sites for the National Institutes of Health and the Mayo Clinic give people access to the symptoms for every illness imaginable. Suddenly, we've all come down with the med student syndrome among a slew of other things. WebMD has a nifty “symptom checker" that allows you to click on the body parts bothering you and answer survey questions similar to what your doctor might ask. The Web site warns, in a con descending tone, that it ‘is not a substitute for professional medi cal advice." Of course, it’s easy to forget something like that when your runny nose and cough turn up conditions ranging from a sinus infection to the West Nile virus. We re surpassing our physician’s education and experience for a sys tem that doesn't take into account personal factors beyond age and sex. By the time we get their diag nosis of a common cold, the stress has already taken its toll on us. The Internet doesn’t make us experts. Remember that next time you’re editing an entry for Wikipedia. Be bold enough to call your knowledge into question, double-check your facts and save someone else the embarrassment of having to defend the incorrect information you provided them. And if you’re one of those people who frequent Wikipedia, consider heading to the used book store and investing in a good old fashioned Encyclopedia Britannica instead EDITORIAL CARTOON ByMasonPhillips.mphilOemail.unc.edu p ; 'l BC4I jl^^i^vvT/■ ; .V ;' y\’ \‘ v ‘./ y<y ' .' Hands off The federal government can’t force endowment use We sure wish our sav ings accounts earned a 19.2 percent return like UNC’s endowment does. Despite the fact that many universities, particularly pri vate ones, have enormous endowments, the federal gov ernment has no right to require universities to spend a certain portion of that money. The U.S. Senate Finance Committee is seeking informa tion on the way that universi ties use their endowments. We appreciate its apparent con cern for our tuition costs; the thought is nice. The committee is welcome to investigate to its heart s content why both tuition and the value of endowments have risen. We often wonder that ourselves. But when it comes to tak ing action, the Senate needs to leave its hands off univer sity money. A total of 136 U.S. universi ties have endowments worth a half-billion or more. UNC’s $2 billion endowment is high among public universities but looks miniscule next to Harvard Control the story CMS should continue incident reports, send less often When Charlotte- Mecklenburg Schools started issuing daily incident reports, the system never specified any restrictions about who had access to the reports. But now that the media has started picking up on some of the news in the reports, the school board isn’t sure if it wants to keep them coming. The original intent behind the reports was to keep members of the CMS Board of Education informed of newsworthy events such as acts of violence, arrests or car wrecks. Keeping board members updated is an admirable goal that in and of itself is not a prob lem. But if CMS thinks these reports shouldn’t be in the hands of the media, then the system is sadly mistaken. By compiling the reports into officially distributed documents, the school district has, in effect Due to a longstanding wager, we had to run this satanic symbol. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for subjecting you to it. Opinion University’s 534 billion. In the past, Congress has discussed requiring universi ties to spend at least 5 percent of their endowments each year to help mitigate tuition hikes. While it’s unlikely that this policy would affect UNC, which typically spends between 4.3 and 7 percent of its endowment annually, the policy is still not a good idea. Most schools are not as well endowed as the nation's biggest private universities. Most aren't sitting on several billion dollars. Requiring smaller schools to spend from more fragile endowments before they have the chance to build them up could hurt those universities in the long run. Federalism is also an issue at hand. Education is an issue left to the states. Public schools receive state appropriations. If anyone should be making this kind of order, it should be state governments. The best the federal govern ment can do without encroach ing on state liberties is to tie federal funding which even created an easily accessible public record of incidents in the school. As such, it shouldn't be surprised when the media out lets pick it up. In America (or any country with a free flow of information), newspapers and television sta tions have the right to any sto ries they come across that aren’t explicitly private. Whether or not the media choose to publish cer tain accounts is an issue of taste and ethics, not one of legality. As any good press sec re tan will tell you, CMS needs to con trol the story. CMS can’t keep the media from looking at the reports, but instead of issuing them on a daily basis, they could reduce the reports to a weekly publication. If the reports were reduced to weekly periodicals, no one would be any less aware of important occurrences, but instead of the media finding out each indi vidual incident separately, they private universities receive to spending a requisite per centage of the endowment. Politically, however, this would not be Congress' best move, as opponents would likely bash it for pulling fund ing from higher education. We're not denying it would be nice if universities would spend a little more of their endowments so they don’t have to raise tuition so much. But there’s no guarantee that a spending requirement would achieve that end, anyway. A university is more or less an insatiable black hole for money. UNC’s needs are end less; it could easily spend more of its endowment and still make a case for tuition increases. And we highly doubt that the Senate knows the best uses of university money. The best thing the Senate can do is publish the results of its study on how universities spend their endowments. If the results aren’t accept able, maybe the public outcry will change things. But the sen ators can’t do it themselves. would be lumped together, mak ing it appear as though fewer incidents occurred and that they were less severe. Though CMS can’t exactly publicize only the information that they are comfortable with the media seeing, if an event occurred that CMS knew was media-bound, the school district could release information about it before reporters got word. CMS Superintendent Peter Gorman is expected to make a decision about the reports soon. If he decides to discontinue the reports altogether, faculty and board members might not be as knowledgeable as they could be about the happenings in their schools. But if CMS continues to pro duce the reports, the schools need to recognize that the media are allowed free and unrestricted access to any information that they’ contain. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “They got any shot they minted. I don’t know very many times that our defense dictated what shot they got ROY WILLIAMS, COACH LETTERS TO THE EDITOR To read the full-length versions VISIT http://daHytarheelpubiic.wordpress.com Post your own response to a letter, editorial or story online. VISIT www.daHytarheet.com/feedback Prediction subjected Heels to reverse discrimination TO THE EDITOR: I am writing in response to Wednesday’s article, "The low down on tonights game," (Feb. 6). While I understand the desire to exclude bias in a newspaper, the DTH is, indicative of its name, a Tar Heel paper, not a Duke paper. On the eve of the biggest rival ry in college basketball, students on this campus should not crack open their paper to see the edge given to their rival team's coach and the idea of a Tar Heel vic tory without Lawson proclaimed a “strange thing." School spirit means cheering on one's team even in the face of adversity: Do note, DTH, that adversity includes tom ACLs and high ankle sprains. The absence of afore mentioned school spirit in Wednesday’s paper is appalling, reprehensible and a downright shame. It appears that the DTH staff needs to be reminded not to play the devil’s advocate when the devil in question is royal blue. Ash Barnes Junior Asian Studies Reward dedication and spirit allow camp-outs TO THE EDITOR: I had a Phase 1 ticket I spent hours digging through the CAA Web site, ticket policy and even went so far as to e-mail Colby Almond, the CAA president, about camping out. Flash forward to Tuesday night, t-minus 25 hours to tip off. After getting no news to stop me, things are looking good. The security guard tells me that I can’t have a tent, but I can spend the night. Then at 11 p.m. the four groups received heart breaking news. Our efforts were futile. A (Carolina) Fever student told us it was going to be ran dom random. School spirit, camping out, bonding with other students were all useless. We called (Almond), and he informed us that we should leave; I was wasting my time. If 1 didn't, DPS would remove me. Where was this news days ago? Much less, who would make such an atrocious decision? I’ll tell you, a CAA president who doesn’t care about students or the game. Someone who already has his seat reserved. I want back the experience of camping out and the hours I spent preparing; I want to believe that Carolina students care about other Carolina stu dents, and I want my oppor tunity to stand feet away from whoever is playing point guard and watch them destroy Duke, as I hate the Blue Devils and Coach K with every last inch of my body and with every ounce of blood that pumps through my heart. Bring back tenting if you have to, but don’t screw students who care. Richard Young Senior Peace War and Defense SPEAK OUT WHITING GUIDELINES: ► Mease type: Handwritten letters wilt not be accepted. ► Sign and date: No more than two people should sign letters. ► Students: Indude your year, major and phone number. ► Faculty/stiff: Indude your department and phone number. ► Edit: The DTH edits for space, clarity, accuracy and vulgarity. Limit letters to 2SO words. SUBMISSION: ► Drop-off at our office Suite 2409 in the Student Union. ► E-mail: to edrtdeskOunc.edu ► Send: to RO. Box 3257, Chapel Hid. N.C., 27515. EDITOR'S NOTE: Cabmen cartoons and fetters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Die Daily Tar Heel or in staff. Edrtorials are the opinions solely of The Daily Tar Heel edito rial board The board enreias of eight board members, the associate opinion etttor the opinion editor and the editor. The 2007-08 editor decided not to vote on the board Slip Satlii Hrrl Left-handers have the same rights as righties TO THE EDITOR: The language of today only reflects the right-handed preju dice in our society. It creates a sense of inferiority for left-handers. Actions are “right or wrong," which is to say that left is wrong. Why not “correct or wrong"? Left-handers are seen as hav ing abnormalities, and children arc still forced to write with their right hand. Also, why must I drive on the right side of the road? Society’ tells me that to be correct, I must be “right" It's exclusive. Some countries allow their drirers to decide which side of the road they wish to drive on: why can’t we as a society adopt this equality? 1 have rights ... or is it “corrects"? Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, so does the term first-vear student. The use of freshman as a tool for “symbolic annihilation" is borderline absurd. Are we so enamored with political correct ness that the term “freshman" is paralleled to rarism? (“Freshwhite" isn’t a word.) Why stop at the English lan guage? Plenty of romance lan guages refer to nouns in gender. I'm sure the French will change their entire language. It’s a word. It expresses the idea of students in their first year of college. It does not express an inherent bias. If changing the use of right seems ludicrous, changing fresh man doesn't make sense either. Democracy is equal rights, not special consideration. Check your Amendments again start at 19. Craig Golden Freshman Mathematics Help those that help you by increasing financial aid TO THE EDITOR: 1 appreciated the piece Wednesday that argued for increased funding for those stu dents without U.S. citizenship (“Help Wanted," Feb. 6). It perplexes me that our soci ety, on one hand, benefits from the hard labor of this population, and then turns around and crim inalizes and dehumanizes these same folks (but of course, never the employers of the immigrants, the ones who exploit these folks for maximum profits). It is about time that we offer these folks that literally put the food on our table to have the chance to sit at the table with us. Making housing, health care and education more accessible is a great way to start. Finally, I would caution us from using the word “illegal" to describe any human being how can a person be “illegal"? And, if it were to be used, shouldn't it be the indigenous population of this land who is using it? Anthony Fleg Fourth year School of Medicine tThr Sailij (Tar Hrrl Established 1893, 114 years of editorialfreedom ERIN ZUREICK EDITOR. 962-4086 ZUREICKOEMAILUNC.EDU OFEICE HOURS: MON.. WED, fill. 1-2 P.M. ADAM STORCK OPINION EDITOR. 962-0750 APSTORCKOUNC.EDU JONATHAN TUGMAN ASSOCIATE OPINION EDITOR. 962-0750 TUGMANOUNC.EDU ANDREW JONES PUBLIC EDITOR IONESAWOEMAILUNC.EDU EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS JESSICA SCISM SARAH WHITWORTH KATHRYN ARDIZZONE SARAH LETRENT DUNCAN CARLTON ELYSE MCCOY GRAHAM ROWE DAVID GIANCASPRO
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Feb. 7, 2008, edition 1
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