DmTyNebraskan
Since 1901
Editor Sarah Baker
Opinion Page Ecfitor Jake Glazeski
Managing Editor Bradley Davis
Buying Power
Marketing increases chance
of winning an Oscar
The wrong movies won the Oscars last
night at the Academy Awards. The wrong
actors and actresses, too.
Now that’s a subjective statement, and,
according to who you might ask, it isn’t partic
ularly accurate, either. Awards ceremonies
are subjective. Always have been. Always will
be.
Yet, the Academy Awards, more than other
awards, are particularly strange because mar
keting is more important than quality.
Furthermore, the Oscars game becomes a
question not of what is best but what has
been seen at all.
The nomination process for films is shaky,
at best. Basically, it’s this: you can’t vote for
what you haven’t seen. And for Academy vot
ers, even the great movie lovers of the bunch,
many of them haven’t seen some of the year’s
best performances because,
quite simply, the companies
... many of that put the films out don’t
(the have enough money to get the
Academy name out there.
voters) And unlike the Grammys,
haven't where the myriad of categories
seen some allows lesser-known acts - even
of the vear P^tf® who might he playing at
Jest y the local bar - to sneak their
- way into a golden record play
perform- eT there is but one award for
ances best American picture: Best
becausef Picture. The Academy Awards
quite don’t even have a comedy cate
simply, the gory like the Golden Globes.
companies And so, in the process, the
that put the Oscars night was onqe again
films out taken UP by long-winded
u speeches, host jokes and tech
enouah nical awards that belong in a
enougn separate ceremony the night
money to before. If viewers, or voters,
get the had a choice between watching
name out the acceptance speech of a cos
there._ tume designer -who most cer
tainly worked on a film that
had enough money to buy ornate costumes -
or the winner of best comedy, which would
they choose?
So much is made out of the number of
awards any certain film can accrue. Special
effects, sound and costume awards are noth
ing but chances for the big money groups to
hoard their wealth. If it surprises people that
“Gladiator” is nominated over and over for
awards, they should know few films could
match “Gladiator” in money spent.
That doesn’t even begin to touch on the
marketing dollars spent to essentially buy
nominations. A film like “Chocolat” may be
fine in several respects, but nearly every per
son in the film community acknowledges that
the movie’s production company, Miramax,
spends so much money on marketing that
they make sure every voter sees their film.
How many voters, on the other hand, saw the
Artisan-powered “Requiem for a Dream?”
What the system does is bury some of the
best films for being small or, even worse,
being released at the wrong time. > - '
Consider “Momento,” a film currently run
ning the New York/L.A. circuit and gaining
raves. Any chances of a film opening now
being remembered next February that has lit
tle marketing money behind it and little word
of mouth 10 months later?
Will Nebraska lose to Troy State next year?
Editorial Board
Sarah Baker, Jeff Bloom, Bradley Davis, Jake Glazeski,
Matthew Hansen, Samuel McKewon, Kimberly Sweet
Letters Poficy
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Edtorial Polcy
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God and athletes
In response to Samuel McKeworis article “A little
help from above?” (Ihursday, March 22), I have a few
questions for him. Are you so arrogant to think that
someone who created the universe can't care about
the outcome of a sporting event but only you can?
Matthew 10*30 reads, “And even the very hairs of your
head are all numbered." Yet, you think that sports are
too frivolous for God?
Also, I find it hard to believe that you honestly
think that athletes accept God because other athletes
axe doing it Athletes spend their whole lives going
against their peers and working to better themselves.
That is why only a few people will make it.
Professional, I may not be, but as one person oh a
team of 24, you can’t misunderstand my faith in God
as a bandwagon theory.
I personally think that it is quite obvious that the
reason so many athletes are speaking about God is
that they realize that they could not have made it to
where they are without His power in their lives. And
once I got to know Jesus Christ personally, I have not
wanted to stop shouting about Him either:
And what about second chances? You claim that
there are no second chances in sports. I, myself, had
an injury during high school that should have ham
pered my ability to ever be able to play again. I did,
however, have a second chance. I was able to play for
four more years. Praise God!
Lauren Thtum
senior
biochemisty
NU soccer player
What free news?
In response to Josh O’Connell, regarding the
superftuousness of the Daily Nebraskan;
Mr. O’Connell mentions several “trustworthy
(and free) sources" of die news he prefers not to get
from the DN. I’m not sure I correctly understand his
definition of free, however. I don’t have a home com
puter on which to access the AP news, and to pur
chase one equipped with Internet would cost $799.
I don't have a television to watch Bill Maher, so
that would be another $225. Cable for SportsCenter
would be $360 per year A subscription to the journal
Star, for a year, runs about $172. Altogether, his “free”
news sources would cost $1,556for me to access. The
Daily Nebraskan costs a couple bucks a semester, and
I’ve enjoyed reading it for the past four years. A well
funded paper is a better paper, and I fully support the
DN. As for opinions, I wonder what vehicle he would
have chosen to voice his opinion on this issue if not
the DN. I'm sure it wouldn’t have made Politically
Incorrect
Jennifer Kuzara
senior
anthropology German
A personal attack
Just when I thought the Daily Nebraskan couldn't
prove its unprofessionalism any more, it steps*right
up to the plate with the editorial of “Brent’s Blunder.”
Since I first learned to read, I have never seen a rep
utable paper personally attack one person as that arti
cle did Stanfield.
I don’t know Stanfield personally, and actually, I
did not agree with cutting the DN’s funding as much
as he proposed, but I also don’t agree with labeling
him as “a senator with an ax to grind,” taken directly
from the article. If he was grinding the ax, that article
picked up the shotgun, loaded it and let him have
both barrels.
In the last line of the article, it states, "Senators
shouldn’t let one person’s voice overpower that of an
entire student body.” If the DN truly stands behind
that statement, then it should also believe that a
newspaper shouldn't use its position to carry out a
personal vendetta against one person.
John Backer
junior
criminal justice
Behind the waxy myths
“T*uth: n. An ingenious
compound of desirability and
appearance. Discovery of truth
is the sole purpose of philoso
phy, which is the most ancient
occupation of the human
mind and has a fair prospect of
existing with increasing activi
ty to the end of tune."
-Ambrose Bierce, “The
Devil’s Dictionary”
Jeremy
PatricK
I wish Ambrose Bierce were alive today. Author of
“The Devil’s Dictionary,” he had the rare ability to see
what we actually mean when we use certain words.
One of the current buzzwords in academic dis:
course is “critical thinking.” It’s recited like a veritable
mantra by many intellectuals.
I expect if Bierce were around, he'd look at the
term’s current usage and give it an entry in “The Devil’s
Dictionary” like this: “Critical thinking: n. That which
one has obviously failed to do whenever one dis
agrees, for whatever reason, with the views of the
speaker.”
But at the same time, it is dear that our society is
dangerously lacking in critical thinking- When the
National Enquirer makes millions, thousands call the
“Psychic Hotline” and every 3 am., infomercials tout a
new “miracle” product, something is probably wrong.
It as the textbooks say, an informed public is neces
sary for a well-functioning democracy, the reason for
many of our country’s yarious debacles suddenly
becomes crystal-ball dear
Of course, we're all guilty of lapses in critical think
ing at one time or another. The problem with such
lapses is they can be terribly embarrassing and strike
anyone, anytime. They are not relegated solely to the
“uneducated,” as shown by the fact that just about
every scam in existence has had testimony from a
doctor or scientist of some sort
So as penance for my own lapse in critical think
ing, I share a story: Several months ago my boyfriend,
Daniel, told me about this new product called “ear
candles.” He told me that they were a great way to
remove earwax and that he had personally seal how
well they work. So with such “evidence,” we trudged
on down to Open Harvest and plunked down several
dollars for tapered tubes made out of wax.
Daniel filled me in on how they “work.” First, you
lie down on foe couch. Second, you place the narrow
end of foe tube in your ear so that foe other end is
sticking in the am Third, you light that end on fire.
Now, If you’re picturing someone with a flaming
cone sticking out of their ear and it sounds suspicious,
you’re right and a whole lot smarter than I was. But
alas...
Although I almost set Daniel’s hair on fire, we were
both amazed by what happened. After a few minutes,
we snuffed the lit end and looked inside the tube. It
was filled with a crumbling brown substance, obvi
ously earwax We weren't able to figure out how they
worked, but I remember hypothesizing something
about a vacuum.
So it was much to my chagrin when, a few days
later, I walked into Barnes and Noble and picked up
the newest issue of Skeptical Inquirer. There, on die
cover in big bold letters, were the words “Behind the
Ear Candle Myth.” The article discussed experiments
the authors had done and stated what should have
been very obvious: the brown, crumbly substance
found after lighting one end of the candle on fire was
the remnants of the candle itself
In reading Kant’s thick, obfuscating works, there
has only been onetime I have ever laughed. It was
when, in the “Critique of Pure Reason," he said,
“Deficiency in the faculty of judgment is really what
we call stupidity, and there is no remedy for that”
I hope he’s wrong about that last part and that a
rigorous use of critical thinking can compensate for at
least some inherent stupidity. At its core, “critical
thinking” is nothing more than the application of the
scientific method. When it comes down to it, the
method of science is even more important that the
results it helps us to achieve.
As Stillman Drake said, “Facts... constitute only a
part of what science has to teach us, and they make up
neither the most interesting nor the most significant...
the truly influential and pervasive aspects of modem
science are not its fact at all, but rather its method of
inquiry and its criterion of truth.”
In his book “The Demon-Haunted World,” Carl
Sagan wrote about what he called a “baloney-detec
tion” kit In short a few principles everyone should
keep in mind when evaluating a claim. The “tools” in
Sagan’s baloney-detection kit are simple but effective.
Finding independent confirmation of facts,
encouraging substantive debates by knowledgeable
proponents on both sides of an issue, examining mul
tiple hypotheses, avoiding arguments from authority
and asking if die hypothesis can (at least in principle)
be disproved, are all good methods of separating the
wheat from the chaff
Or at least separating the ear candles from the Q
Ups.
Pop culture's
aluminum
chariots
Today I won- Nick
dered something. TanOWSkl
Where did all thoseHmaaBHHHB
cute litde aluminum scooters go?
I haven't seen one since the sec
ond day of school this fall. I's like
they vanished or something... like a
fad, even.
They just up and scooted them
selves off the face of the earth - or to
the dorm closets of hundreds of
embarrassed undergraduate stu
dents.
Either way, I haven’t seen one in
forever and, well, I’d like to. You
know, for old times sake. There was a
day (but only one) when UNL’s pop
ular public trended by me on these
sleek aluminum chariots to and
from class and parties and dorms
and whatnot, while a passion
burned within me.
Yes, I, too, wanted one of those
cute foldable scooters back in the
day (for only one day, mind you), but
I’ll be damned if I’ll ever know why.
Well, actually I know exactly why. I’m
weak. There it is; no use denying it.
it s a simple mmmmm—mmm
™'/r* / used to
I ve come to
accept it. See, preach the
there are certain evjJs 0fpop
pieces of pop cul- .
ture college MUSIC tO
regalia that I’m my oldest
finding harder and . _
harder to resist. little SlSter,
As always, i a girl who
steer clear of the
party/alcohol routinely
scene that seems calls Me Oil
SXt? the siUtness
ish,” but for some Of My
reason I can’t help cKll^fldes
but listen to 97.7 ‘
JAMS when I’m in
my car. I rarely buy name-brand
clothes first hand, but I insist on eat
ing two egg rolls and rice nearly
everyday at the oh-so-filling
Chinese restaurant in the Nebraska
Union
While I mock the SUV and its
four-wheel stupid, anti-lock stupid,
sunroofs, buttwarmers and other
executive features, I recently pur
chased a cell phone for my phoning
needs. I have lost all my credibility,
haven't I? As the comic book guy
from “The Simpsons” would say,
“Nyew”.
I used to preach the evils of pop
music to my oldest little sister, a girl
who routinely calls me on the sillit
ness of my crusades. I methodically
told her the details of backstage
pitch correction that ensures a fresh,
fluffy, harmonically correct boy
band performance every time.
I tore into her for having a
Hanson CD back when those kids
were young enough to be cute. I
mightily upheld the code of punk as
laid before me by my mentors Bad
Religion and NOFX. Today I smile.
Busta Rhymes is zipping down from
my Napster server at 4.6k per sec
ond. Woo-ha! That's enough to make
anyone think I went soft, right? Well,
what all these “anyones” don’t know
is that while I roll up at a red light
with the door speakers in my Honda
kickin' out “mo money mo' prob
lems,” I’m having a roaring good
time making up scenarios for “Stay
Puft Daddy,” a 300-foot-tall marsh
mallow rapper who likes to eat the
Sower off the Nebraska Capitol.
Those “anyones” look at me like I
looked at my sister. “That kid is
soooooo lame,” they say shaking
their heads; tinted windows, jaded
minds. At least I know that it’s all in
fun. Life, that is.
So let the naysayers say nay tor
all I care; I’m all about egg rolls. It’s
all right that I do what I like. Aside
from just having a good time with
life in general, I’m glad I feel philo
sophically unchanged. I do my best
not to be sold to an advertisement,
and I routinely ask myself if I know
my own motives.
As long as I can say that, it’s good
enough for me. The rest is all in the
fun of living, and as far as I can tell,
living is pretty good. To reiterate, I’m
the same punk kid found at
Southeast Community College two
years ago - just with a few more
groanable tendencies.
My laugh is heartier, too, I think.
Pop culture college droops over
me like a mushy Village Inn pancake
hiding a hard boiled egg. It’s an odd
analogy, but it makes the point that I
like to taste what’s smothering me.
Village Inn makes good pancakes.
So here's my big political move,
my gusto manifesto. Students of
UNL, lend me your ears and quit
being cool for a second. There’s a
warm breeze this time of year. Drag
those scooters out of the closet for a
ride around the block. I’ll be in the
union cutting up with the boys over
egg rolls and rice.