_ “jBb ■
EDITOR
Paula Lavigne
OPINION
EDITOR
Matthew Waite
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Erin Gibson
Joshua Gillin
Jeff Randall
Julie Sobczyk
Ryan Soderlin
Our .
VIEW
Bookstore
business
Independent stores
drive better bargains
Ever bought a textbook at the University
Bookstore or the Nebraska Bodkstbre? hi the
name of graduation, we hope you have.
Ever noticed how much you paid for those
books? If you didn’t, we wish we had your
checking account.
In general, books required for courses at
UNL are pretty expensive in those bookstores.
New textbooks are sold at the publisher’s
nsiea price, me oooKsiores oner many used
books at a discount, but availability is limited.
Bookstore giants now operating on the
Internet are dishing up huge competition for the
bookstores where students buy their textbooks.
These booksellers, including Amazon
Books at http://www.amdzon.com and Barnes
and Noble Booksellers at http://www.bame
sandnoble.com, have instant access to thou
sands of book publishers and can ship any
book in stock within a few days - often at a dis
count of 20 percent or more off the publisher’s
list price.
On their Web sites, you can search for any
book by title and author, and its availability and
price quickly pop up on the screen. Click
another button to order. ,
Send that order, and you never stumble
through the early semester UNL textbook
buying crowds, only to find a textbook has sold
out. You never wait in line at customer service •
to be told the book hasn’t been reordered by
your professor, so you check back every day
the next week.
Instead, the Web%>rdered book drrives on
your doorstep, and yo|r studies can begin with
a little less damage on your already-tattered
collegiate wallet.
Using fall course book lists and local book
store receipts, we assessed the Amazon Books
Web site and found savings of $1.50 or more
on every new paperback book required for
classes and priced under M 5.
Savings were higher on some hardcover
books, more expensive paperbacks and older
editions of popular textbooks, although not all
books we searched for were available.
It’s too bad the University Bookstore, which
was designed to benefit students and faculty, can’t
offer these types of discounts to students.
Because the bookstore cannot offer these
discounts, it may lose business as students and
faculty discover book sales on the Web.
Recently, the university has been talking
about whether to consider outsourcing the
bookstore, or allowing an independent book
seller to replace the University Bookstore.
UNL may soon form a committee with the
help of Curt Ruwe, ASUN president, to get stu
dents’ input into the decision-making process.
May we be the first to say it: Considering
outsourcing the bookstore is a fine idea.
If an independent bookseller can move into
the Nebraska Union and rival these Web-based
discounts - or at least keep the university from
losing money as its bookstore competes with
Web-based competitors — the door should be
open.
EditMiikl DaISmii
cuiiiinai mQ
Unsigned editorials are the opinions of
the Fall 1997 Daily Nebraskan. They do
not necessarily reflect the views of the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, its
employees, its student body or the
University of Nebraska Board of Regents.
A column is solely the opinion of its author.
The Board of Regents serves as publisher
of the Daily Nebraskan; pokey is set by
the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. The
UNL Publications Board, established by
the regents, supervises the production
the regents, responsiblty forthe editorial
content of the newspaper Hes solely in
the hands of its student employees.
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V
Haney's
VIEW
I,
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DN
LETTERS
Bad judgment
Concerning the ad denying the
existence of the Holocaust: Printing,
the ad was bad enough, but the error
was infinitely compounded when
the editor justified this act by saying
that the “beliefs” expressed in the ad
have a right to be aired.
I doubt that the Daily Nebraskan
would have published an ad in which
a group denied that slavery ever
existed in the United States, and that
history has been distorted by
African-Americans to gain sympa
thy for their causes. Clearly, such a
“belief” would have been dismissed
as thinly disguised hate propaganda,
and would not have been given
space in the newspaper.
Similarly, this ad does not quali
fy as revisionist history, but as very
- thinly veiled antisemitism.
How then could this paper justify
printing an attack on the Holocaust,
which is so well documented by
photos, by eyewitnesses and by vic
tims, some still living? How could
the paper subsequently defend the
decision to print it?
m Desi, me eanor was guilty oi
abominably bad judgment. At worst,
well, you can use your imagination.
Either way, I doubt that someone
who has so little understanding of
what constitutes freedom of speech
has any business running a newspa
per at the University of Nebraska
Lincoln.
/ Joan Darling
Lincoln
America’s game
1 have no problem when some
body criticizes America’s pastime,
but please if you do it, make sure
you check your facts before writing
a column about it.
In Barb Churchill’s column, she
says that attendance figures are
down more than 12 percent in the
last two years. Wrong. In 1997,
Major League Baseball games aver
aged more than 28,000 fans (more
than 63 million people), an increase
of 5.8 percent from the 1996 average
of 26,891. Attendance rose 6.4 per
cent in 1996 from 1995. Obviously,
that is down from baseball’s 1994
average of 31,000 or more.
The strike of 1994 put a dent in
the baseball box office, but it is on
the rebound. This year’s numbers are
the third highest in the 128-year-his
■__
tory of Major League Baseball.
Churchill says inter-league play
is supposed to counter fan apathy.
Well, it did. Inter-league games
drew 20.2 percent more fans on
average, or 33,407 people, than reg
ular games.
Ripping on baseball’s off-the
field problems is hypocritical
because baseball’s problems neither
exceed nor trail any other profes
sional sport or any other profession,
for that matter.
... Finally, she takes a shot at the
inability of families to pay for a
day’s fun at the ballpark. Baseball
tickets are the cheapest in profes
sional sports. The average price of a
ticket is $11.07 - less than half the
cost of a ticket to an NBA, NFL or
NHL ticket. It even rivals the $10
cost to go to the Lincoln Community
Playhouse to see Winnie the Pooh.
Baseball has taken its shots, and
well deserved. But it is clearly tak
ing strides to maintain its status as
America’s pastime.
Emily C. Williams
senior
theater arts
Laser art
The review of “Laser Ska” by
Jay Saunders in Monday’s DN
brings up several comments we
would like to share with DN readers.
Coverage of our shows this year
in the DN has generally been limited
to a few caustic remarks from Bret
Schulte. We appreciate the fact that
Saunders actually came to the laser
show before attempting comments.
Schulte, on the other hand, had
labeled the idea of “Laser Ska” as
“ludicrous” in Friday’s DN before
the show had even been performed.
Obviously, it wasn’t “ludicrous”
to Saunders, and neither was it
“ludicrous” to us. Ska has a lot of
high-intensity dynamics and repre
sents a good creative challenge -
remember that a laser show is an
artistic interpretation of the music.
I might point out that we are the
only planetarium (or laser company)
ever to do a ska show (and the reason
is the limited market audience). It
would be nice to be applauded as a
leader. We’ve been the innovators of
a number of shows that other laser
companies are now emulating. And
we are trying to serve a broad range
of audience tastes, which is what
caused us to attempt “Laser Ska” in
the first place. Part of being a leader
is charting new ground rather than
just doing the proven.
In terms of the interpretation of
individual songs, this is up to the
laser artist and is as personalized as
a painting or sculpture. Saunders
mentions “Tin Soldiers” as one of
the strongest pieces, while we who
created the show thought it was one
of the weaker entries. Far stronger,
i we thought, were >sSeH 'Out”'or even
the artistic work in “Don’t Speak.”
This just points out how individual
tastes vary.
We do have 20 years of laser
show experience. And we are lead
ers in our field. This weekend, more
than 100 laser display professionals
will be coming to Lincoln as we play
host to the International Laser
Display Association Conference.
This organization includes members
such as Walt Disney World and pri
vate businesses which have per
formed at major festivals around the
world. Mueller Planetarium has won
international awards for its lasering.
Of course, we’re not sure why all
these folks are coming to see us
when they should be coming to talk
to Schulte, as he obviously is the
authority on what makes a good
laser show.
We appreciate Saunders giving
his thoughts, as this gives us the
kind of feedback we like. This was
the first “Laser Ska” show ever pro
duced, and if we can make it better,
that’s our goal.
I
Jack Dunn
coordinator
Mueller Planetarium
i j ]
Thanks
In regards to “Our View: Thank
you” on Tuesday, I have two words
for you: Thank you!
But not from me.
From those whose footsteps I
followed, especially those who did
n’t make it home.
V I
Cpl. Jonathan E. Hieb
veteran
United States Marine Corps
freshman
finance