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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 5, 1996)
EDITOR DougKouma OPINION EDITOR Anne Hjersman EDITORIAL BOARD Doug Peters Matt Waite Paula Lavigne Mitch Sherman Anthony Nguyen Decision time Today's the day to voice your choice The ballot box beckons. It’s election day, and we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief — as soon as we vote, that is. The campaigning is over. The commer cials will now stop. Within 24 hours, we will know who will lead us into the next century. We will know who will be the decision-makers at every level of our government. And we will have decided on some important legislation. In the last two weeks, we at the Daily Nebraskan have invited you to join us in thinking about the candidates, the major is sues and some ballot initiatives. We have made our endorsements, and we hope you will take them into consideration as you cast your ballots. We hope you will protect the state’s chil dren, its schools and its courts by rejecting baikrt initiatives 411 and 412, which prom ise a constitutional right to “quality educa tion” and property-tax relief, but will bring chaos to the courts and take its toll on tax payers as the burden will shift from property taxes to other tax sources. We hope you will vote against initiative 409 and say no to term limits and the “Scar let Letter” scare tactics that supporters are proposing to brand candidates on the ballot. We hope you will protect our state from the corrosive effects of gambling by saying no to Amendment 1 and preventing the spread of betting outside of licensed race tracks. We encourage you to support our state legislators by voting yes on Amendment 3 and giving them the same employee benefits granted to other state officers. We ask you to cast your vote for NU Regent Nancy O’Brien to show your appre ciation for her efforts in advocating the N Roll system, lightening the financial burden on students and simplifying course transfers between state schools. In the election for the House of Repre sentatives, we urge voters in the 1st District to vote for Rep. Doug Bereuter who has re mained true to his constituents throughout his Congressional career. In the 2nd District, we support James Martin Davis, who we hope will bring some integrity to a House seat that was overtaken by a money-hungiy freshman in the last term. And in the 3rd District, we remind voters of Rep. Bill Barrett’s strong voice for agriculture and education. In the Senate race, we would like to see Chuck Hagel representing our state in Wash ington while Ben Nelson finishes out his gu bernatorial responsibilities here in Lincoln. And as for the presidential race, we en courage you to re-elect President Clinton, who has proven himself to be a real states man and a policy-pusher. — Most of all, we uige you to take a few minutes out of your day today and put some push behind your opinions. Vote. Editorial Policy Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Fall 19% Daily Nebraskan. They do not nec essarily reflect the views of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, its employees, its stu dent body or the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. A column is soley the opinion of its author. The Board of Regents serves as publisher of the Daily Nebraskan; policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Edito rial Board. The UNL Publications Board, es tablished by die regents, supervises die pro duction of the newspaper. According to policy set by die regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its student employees. v. A * . " . ** .• Letter Policy The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief let ters to the editor and guest columns, but does not guarantee their publication. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject any material submitted. Submit ted material becomes the property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will not be published. Those who submit letters must identify themselves by name, year in school, major and/or group affilia tion, if any. Submit material to: Daily Ne braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448. E-mail: letters@unlinfo.unl.edu. /j'i , i; U • •> < Kasey KERBER Sites to see What a wonderful Web we weave I considered writing a column on the World Wide Web weeks ago, but the mere mention of anything “computer” seems to send readers straight to the “comics” page. Well, I decided to risk it anyway. After all, nothing will be quite as bad as last week’s detailed account of seasonal merchandise at Hy-Vee and Kmart — so why not give the web a shot? So what is it about the World Wide Web that a lot of people find intimidating? I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the web came into existence only recently, yet already has a potentially huge impact on our lives. Ever see “The Net” with Sandra Bullock? In the movie, drop-dead Bullock never leaves her home because she can work, order pizza and chat with others using her computer. Hmmm... a day when we might work or be educated without leaving home? riecK, ii tney can tina a way tor me to flip burgers on the Net and still make $4.25 an hour, my butt’s there! But could it really happen? Well, maybe not in burger flipping, but in education and other work—sure. And I think that’s what is scaring more people than Michael Jackson’s personal life. The World Wide Web’s size has also become intimidating. I typed “airline tickets” into the “Excite” web search service and suddenly found that there were 287,957 web sites that pertained to “airline tickets.” I doubt there are even 100,000 commercial planes in the United States, yet there are somehow twice that many web sites that have something to do with “airline tickets.” Even if you don’t think the World Wide Web is intimidating due to its size, I’m sure you’re a little bit concerned about how strange some of these web pages are getting. r» We’ll take a glance at these weird web sites like Ebenezer Scrooge did with Jiminy Cricket on Christmas Eve—in die past, present and future. First — the past. There are times when we all feel guilty for the things we do—maybe even sinful things we’ve done. That’s why it’s helpful to know about the “Confessional Booth” web site (http:/ /anther.leamingxs.cmu.edu/ priest.html). There we can type our innermost sins and say: “Yes, I have drink a lot! Maybe even so much so that my friends call me Hydrogen Peroxide! And dangit, I feel bad about it!” And maybe, if your sins are bad enough, they’ll, end up on a web site called the “Wall O’ Shame” (http:// www.milk.com/wall-o-shame/). At this site, you can see humorous past failures of mankind. Take, for example, an illustration on the web site that was taken from a 1950 Popular Mechanics magazine. It shows a woman spraying her living room with a hose. The magazine predicted that, in the year 2000, a garden hose would be a housewife’s main cleaning item. One site that should probably be included within the “Wall O’ Shame” is the “Captain James T. Kirk Sing Along Page” (http://www.ama. caltech.edu/users/mrm/kirk/html). Here we see William Shatner’s past, short-lived singing career. Next, we’ll move into the present of weird web sites. Here we find people fascinated with things they really shouldn’t be “overly” fascinated with. From “Spatula City” (http://www.warm. umd.edu/~twoflowr) to “The Twinkies Project” (http:// www.owlnet.rice.edu/~gouge/ twinkies.html), there are a lot of strange people out there devoting their time and Web space to inani mate objects. But the future’s brighter—right? On the web, no such thing is certain. That’s why you’ll need to visit “Online Tarot Reading” (http:// cad.ucla.edu/repository/useful/ tarot.html) to discover what the future has in store for you. And me, well, I’ve decided not to fight the World Wide Web — no matter how fast and large it’s grown or how weird it’s gotten. Therefore, I’ve got my own Web page (http://www.geocities.com/ CollegePark/2090). And I’ve got to admit, it’s weird all right. Where else can you see me dressed up as a superhero, posing in front of an American flag? Well, nowhere actually.... But that just emphasizes my last point on web pages—anyone can create them about anything they like. And with a little luck—the ideas and images on their site can reach the whole world. Where else is such a thing possible? Hollywood? Need an agent. A novel? Need a ghost writer. The press? Need to break the law. No, the World Wide Web might just be the last avenue for free expression on a global scale. And as sad as it sounds, a picture of me in a superhero costume is just < one example of this “expression” in I motion. Now, if I could only figure out what exactly it expresses... Kerber is a sophomore news editorial major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist. %
