Trying to stop Internet piracy is like playing a never-ending game of whack-a-mole.
One site may shut down, but in no time, it will be replaced — and the sites and those who frequent them just keep coming.
Browsing: Editorials
Founded by Baptists, funded by Baptists and for years existing almost solely to educate young Baptists, Baylor would not be many people’s first place to look when finding an example of religious diversity.
It’s easy to complain that kids don’t exercise enough these days. A common stereotype of young people is that they sit on the couch all day with an Xbox controller in hand, a two-liter bottle of Mountain Dew to their right and empty boxes of Bagel Bites to their left. While many complain about this, few people do anything to actually try and get kids to go outside and play.
We’ve all seen them. We all hate them: the countless bloggers, tweeters and commenters who incessantly force their consciousness into the Internet under the faceless mask of anonymity. And let’s face it: We do it, too.
Thanks to constantly developing technology, this is inescapable and pervasive. However, a recent bill proposed by an Illinois senator suggests these commenters should be ripped free of their masks and that anonymous Internet posts should be done away with completely.
In a typical day, how many online or digital accounts does a person access?
Most of us have at least 10 profiles and accounts we use on a daily basis all with different security settings and passwords (or variations of the same password). Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, email accounts and not to mention the several Baylor accounts we need just to function in school have bogged down our lives with the constant need for connection to the cyber-world. We don’t mean to get overly morbid, but what honestly happens to all of this when you die?
When you purchase something, it becomes yours. You own it, and you should be able to do with it what you wish.
This sounds pretty simple, but the government is struggling with this concept.
The law of the land in the United States says that unlocking your cell phone is illegal. This means that a phone purchased from, say, Verizon cannot be unlocked and used on AT&T’s network.
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
This famous quote from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” actually belongs to minor character Marcellus, but this small line from a small character has come to resonate with all people seeking change in their governance.
Things aren’t as bad here as they were in Hamlet’s Denmark— but the issue of the new student regent doesn’t pass the smell test.
Before we begin, it must be stated that this is not a unanimously written editorial.
The Lariat editorial board, whose voice is supposed to be represented in this space, could not come to a unanimous decision on the issue of allowing concealed handguns on campus.
That is why it is the official position of the Lariat editorial board that Baylor University, through the Office of Institutional Research and Testing, should make it a priority to survey the campus to see where we all stand on the issue. It should then make those findings public as soon as possible and send them to area lawmakers.
Students are expected to do their homework, attend class according to the attendance policy and keep ahead of their assignments and grades.
To do so and keep track of our progress, we’ve been given Blackboard, our one-stop answers website. Professors can post syllabi and document students’ attendance and grades. This wonderful tool can help keep both students and teachers organized — so why doesn’t everyone use it?
Most people don’t mean it when they say, “You don’t like it? So sue me.” But one graduate student who didn’t like her grade did just that.
A judge recently ruled against former graduate student Megan Thode, who was suing Lehigh University for $1.3 million in damages as well as to raise a C-plus grade she earned in a class that was mandatory to earn her master’s degree in counseling and human services. Thode claimed the professor of the fieldwork class discriminated against her because she agrees with same-sex marriage and the professor does not.
Attendance.
There have countless debates on this topic before, and that’s to be expected from a large student body composed of people who pay thousands of dollars to be here while pursuing a degree. From how strict policies are from one college to another, to how hard it is to keep track of several different policies a student may have for each class, attendance will always be a hot-button issue on campus.
And don’t even get us started on the seemingly pointless regulations on what is considered an excused absence and what’s not.
Grades are important to everyone. Whether they’re worried about getting into graduate school, law school or even into the work force, grades are important. The academic scholarships most students have are also contingent upon maintaining a certain grade point average.
Academic distinctions, honors and societies are all dependent on maintaining a certain GPA, a certain ratio of A’s to B’s to everything else. It’s hard enough to maintain our GPA’s without having to worry about each professor trying to redefine the grading scale.
Thanks to Facebook’s new Graph Search feature, you can run, but you can’t hide your pictures.
Graph Search, which is currently being tested, is a Facebook search engine that allows you to find information based on specific search word combinations, for example, “people who like dogs and live in Waco.”
If you go to college, you most likely have loans. It’s a glaringly obvious fact, but it bears stating.
Another glaringly obvious fact is that the cost of higher education is rising. According to CNN Money, the cost of private education has increased by 60 percent from the mid-80s and the cost of public education has doubled in that time.
Baylor makes sure to equip the football team with the best gear. The Baylor Science Building has state-of-the-art science equipment. Armstrong Browning Library has beautiful art throughout its halls.
But no bathroom on campus has quality toilet paper.
Required Human Performance classes are Baylor’s way of encouraging students to work out more, and it works.
For a very small percentage of students.
There is no one-size-fits all solutions for the way students choose majors or learn material, so why assume their is for the physical stuff? A set number of required Human Performance classes is not going to work well for most Baylor students.
A specter is haunting Baylor — the specter of unemployment.
It looms like a great shadow on the edge of every Baylor student’s thoughts.
What happens if I can’t find a job after graduation?
How will I pay my student loans off?
We understand the idea behind five-day language classes: more time in class offers more time to learn and should help students.
However, that is not the reality. Ranging from Arabic to Spanish, some low-level language classes, which are required in some cases, are offered from Monday through Friday.
There were 2,892 science majors in 2011 according to Baylor Institutional Research and Testing.
That’s about a fourth of Baylor’s 2011 total undergraduate enrollment of 12,754. That number does not include graduate students and faculty members with offices in the Baylor Sciences Building who might spend more time there than undergraduate students with classes there. That number also doesn’t include students from other majors that take classes in the BSB.
Brittney Griner might go down as the best women’s basketball player of all time.
Her incredible combination of size and skill have made her the most recognizable face in women’s college basketball. This will soon be the case when she enters the WNBA Draft. She will probably be the WNBA’s Michael Jordan. Or, rather, its Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
There has been a disturbing rumor flying around Baylor.
The rumor often crops up as a justification for a nonsensical or incongruous building project. The question “Why did Baylor do that again?” is raised and an inevitable but uninformed answer is, “Oh, we’re trying to get into the Ivy League.”
We’re going to ignore the abject ridiculousness of this statement for a minute to provide some context.
You get accepted to Baylor.
You move in during Welcome Week.
You’re away from home for the first time, alone in a new environment without your parents and no idea what do to about your laundry. Who do you call?
Your Community Leader, (CL) is there to welcome you and provide guidance.
PubFigcomicHaving a personal opinion is okay.
Having a personal opinion about the policy of a president —agree or disagree— is also okay.
Having a personal opinion that prays for the death of President Obama, as appalling as it may be, is also protected under the First Amendment.
However, Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal (R-Hutchinson) recently circulated an email saying “Pray for Obama,” to all of his republican colleagues that cites Psalm 109:8.
Psalm 109:8 begins: “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.”
Chapel: As undergraduates, we’ve all been through it.
Every undergraduate at Baylor is required to attend Chapel in some form, although the requirements vary. Chapel, a time of worship every Monday and Wednesday, is one of the oldest and most valued Baylor traditions. It has been a part of student life for more than 160 years.
Although Chapel is a valued tradition, it is taking up time that many students can’t easily sacrifice. It’s also taking money. There is a class fee of $65 for attending Chapel.
Trying to swipe a friend through in the dining halls is a fairly common experience. Perhaps, if you are a student who has a meal plan, you’ve tried it yourself.
Perhaps you’ve been told no.
What’s in a name? Does defining a concept or person with a single word really capture its essence?
Until recently, no, especially words like “outrage,” “victim” and, until recently, “rape.”
However, on Jan. 6, the Federal Bureau of Investigation made a historic change in the national definition of rape that expands recognition to victims of a horrible crime that had previously been ignored.
It is shocking how many mass shootings have occurred in the past year. The shootings listed below caught the attention of the media and the nation, inspiring discussion on regulating the sale of firearms in America:
There’s an old saw that gets repeated with some frequency around Baylor.
It goes, “There’s nothing to do that’s fun around Waco.”
Well, to some extent that’s true. Encouraging growth downtown has been the goal of various organizations in Waco for nearly 50 years.
As a society, we are moving more toward universal acceptance, but a new trend might come as a shock to some people. The fact of the matter is that fewer and fewer guys want to get married.
It used to be that men would grow up, go to school, get a job, get married and have kids.
The family would raise their boys, if they had any, to do the same, and the cycle would continue.
We see them everywhere.
Calling to us from coffee shops and convenient stores, the platform of beverages, powders and pills entice us to “go faster,” “be stronger” and “last longer.”
To students — all, for the most part legally adults and able to make their own decisions — buckling under the weight of full-time classes and jobs they seem like a godsend. And as our country gets busier and busier, we are constantly surprised when the long-term affects of these “godsends” finally surface.