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Our Perspective...
Oscars look to be interesting
The Academy Awards are given to the best in this year’s entertainment, but unfortunately, the show usually fails to be anything other than a bore.
That’s not to say there aren’t some noble competitors in the race this year. There are, and they deserve mention here.
Contenders for best motion picture are “The Aviator,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Ray,” “Finding Neverland” and “Sideways.” Unlike the last three years of the Oscars, this year’s show features films that had little to no hype before their release, only to have those same films dominate the entertainment industry.
Jamie Foxx is up for two awards: best actor in a leading role for his portrayal of Ray Charles in “Ray,” and for best actor in a supporting role for his performance in “Collateral.”
Leonardo DiCaprio, whose ability to produce a hit over the last few years had sunk almost as quickly as the Titanic, also stands for the best leading actor award for his portrayal of Howard Hughes in “The Aviator.”
Other talent includes Johnny Depp in “Finding Neverland” and Kate Winslet in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”
Unfortunately, the Oscars are every much about politics as they are about awarding talent. Even more sadly, most of said talent is ignored.
Couple that with the fact that this entertainment award show offers little more entertainment than watching paint dry, and what you have is a four-hour long program that will just infuriate legions of “Desperate Housewives” viewers.
Even Chris Rock, this year’s host, has taken a few shots at the show.
Rock came under criticism recently after saying he knew of no straight black man who would sit down and watch the show. He also told Entertainment Weekly the idea of giving a movie an award for the “Best Art” category was “idiotic.”
When commenting on the nominations usually going to white performers, Rock jibbed, “If you’re darker than a paper bag, you can’t get in.”
Keep in mind also that this was the same academy that snubbed Martin Scorsese for “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull,” “GoodFellas” and most recently “Gangs of New York.” Alfred Hitchock never won an Oscar either.
So the Academy’s powers as judges of all good and great are just a little questionable.
Still, you never know, maybe this year will offer something unexpected and entertaining.
Or at least something to laugh at.
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Professors get F for use of technology
I have experienced a great deal in my short years at Appalachian State University. I walked miles to campus on nice spring days and trudged through inches and even feet of snow.
Many times I’ve gotten up on cold February days, taken the oh-so-safe AppalCART up and down sheets of ice and slush, only to finally reach my class and find a note on the closed and locked door saying, “classes are cancelled today.”
The idea of a simple note on a door informing students of a cancellation is, at best, irritating and the least technological form of communicating to a class.
In technology-driven times like these, where professors post assignments, notes and even their entire syllabus online, why can’t they mass e-mail their students in the morning and inform them of a class cancellation?
There may be legitimate reasons for some. I have no doubt that a select few professors may not have a computer or access to the internet at their home, although I do believe every student and professor should have viable access to the internet whether they are at home or on campus.
I have had professors who literally put every single piece of homework, notes, printouts and information on every assignment online through WebCT, but cannot write a simple e-mail to students informing them of a cancellation for the day.
When a professor expects you to turn in every single assignment on the Internet, one can assume he or she has enough reasonable access to the Internet to inform students of schedule changes through e-mail at the least.
I can understand not informing students through e-mail in a bad snow or ice storm, when power lines go down and Internet access is not an option, especially for professors who live miles from Boone. But professors still need to go over a basic procedure on what will happen and how students will be notified if there are any changes in the class schedule due to inclement weather.
At the least, if e-mailing is simply too difficult, there’s no possible way it can be that difficult to take five minutes of class time during one class, and explain inclement weather policies, or at least include it on the class syllabus.
I’m sure this specific topic has not affected me as much as it has other off-campus students who live up to 30-45 minutes away from the university and commute to class every day.
To drive that far to class on a daily basis is evidence enough that these are some of the most dedicated students, yet they get penalized the worst in situations like this. These students pay good money to invest in a higher education and the last thing they need is to waste money on an hour’s worth of gas, which we all know is always on the rise.
On-campus students may not be as directly affected as off-campus ones, but they have to risk the icy sidewalks and the almost inevitable thought of slipping and falling in front of groups of strangers.
This can be quite an embarrassment, but more importantly it could cause severe injuries. Risking this only to find a note on your classroom door you pretty much predicted would be there is disappointing and simply not safe.
In a university so closely associated with inclement weather, one would expect there to be a policy for professors to present prior notification of cancellations to students. Inclement weather affects both on and off-campus students and there should be a responsibility for all teachers to inform.
Many will argue that the Internet is the easiest, most reliable form of communication today, so why is it so difficult for professors to use?
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Canada: free heroin, lower crime rate
Suppose you’re a heroin addict. That’s right, a heroin addict.
Suppose you spend $200 a day maintaining your habit. In the life of a junkie, that’s a pretty hefty amount of money to be spending on a daily basis.
Suppose that you would do anything just to get your fix—prostitution, robbing a bank, stealing Mr. Jones’ Beamer … the list goes on.
Once you finally get that fix, you don’t care whose needle you use and you aren’t even thinking about whether it’s dirty or not. It doesn’t matter what diseases you get because you are only concerned about that moment. It never crossed your mind that you might be contracting HIV with that dirty drug needle you’re using.
All of the sudden, you hear the shrieking of sirens heading down that back alley you thought you were safe in. Busted.
You have tried to kick the habit several times. You tried going on methadone and you have been to all those rehab clinics.
So what do you do?
Never fear! Canada is giving away free heroin!
Free heroin. That’s a phrase I never thought I would hear.
In an effort to reduce crime and prostitution, Health Canada will distribute free pharmaceutical-grade heroin to addicts of over five years.
When I first heard about this, I thought the idea was absurd. Why would you give free heroin to someone so desperately addicted to the drug? Heroin is one of, if not the most, harmful narcotics in the world.
But think about it for a minute.
In Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto, there is a high percentage of drug-related prostitution and crime. When you are addicted to such a serious drug, you will do just about anything to get your fix.
If heroin addicts are freed from the turmoil they endure daily when trying to find heroin, can they improve the quality of their lives?
I think so.
A heroin addict’s main concern each day is when and how they will get their fix. If heroin were made available through a clinic for free, like Health Canada is proposing, addicts would have the chance to do something else besides look for heroin.
More importantly, the crime rate would go down and prostitution levels would dramatically decrease.
Similar trials concerning heroin in Switzerland and the Netherlands have shown positive results.
I think people are finally realizing that busting an addict for heroin and then throwing that person in prison is not exactly the best solution.
Only those who have been addicted for five years or more and have tried to quit the habit before will be eligible for the program. About 470 addicts will be chosen to participate in the program.
Addicts will be using safer supplies and will be less likely to contract deadly diseases, such as AIDS and Hepatitis-C.
People are going to do whatever they want regardless of what the law says. If these people are going to continue to do heroin, the least Canada can do is try to help them.
And by helping them, I mean making sure that they do not contract harmful diseases while injecting heroin and not robbing people or committing crimes just to get a fix.
The program for free heroin is scheduled to start around mid-March.
Giving out free heroin in Canada definitely won’t solve all the problems concerning heroin, but I think it will improve the situation.
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Letters to the Editor
Poor photo demeans home team
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