by Candy Smith
Several Democratic politicians came into Corvallis in the past two weeks: Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, as well as Congressman Peter DeFazio. For some reason, our United States senators chose to hold their town hall meetings in the middle of the work day, when most couldn’t make it in to participate.
Senator Merkley held his town hall meeting at 9:30 a.m. on a Friday, and Senator Wyden held his at 2:30 p.m. on a Tuesday. This is in stark contrast to Congressman DeFazio, who held his meeting on a Tuesday evening, and a panel of Republican candidates who held their town hall meeting on Thursday evening at the Memorial Union at OSU. In a town where a huge portion of the population are students, in a party that prides itself on outreach to young people and working populations, it seems an absurd oversight to hold town hall meetings when nobody can make it.
The Grammys
by Johnny Beaver
Such an easy target, I know. What more do you want from an event that spawns more chatter about some guy’s Smokey the Bear hat than the actual music it was supposedly honoring? In all honesty, that was a %$@! huge hat. But still, in principal, I believe this is their goal.
To quote Maynard Jame Keenan of Tool, “I think the Grammys are nothing more than some gigantic promotional machine for the music industry. They cater to a low intellect and they feed the masses. They don’t honor the arts or the artist for what he created. It’s the music business celebrating itself.” What’s funny is that comments in that vein ring even truer when you look into how the awards are nominated, which is basically by a large number of industry insiders that stand to profit from things going a certain way.
Seriously though, do you really think an actual music lover would give Darius Rucker another award? Because that happened. And the producers, who undoubtedly play on the same merry-go-round as the aforementioned insiders, started rolling advertisements for Hilton Hotels and Delta over Trent Reznor, Dave Grohl and company while they were still performing. Reznor had this to say in response: “$@! you.” But hey, guys… you asked for it by agreeing to even be there.
For Smart Glasses They Look Pretty Stupid
By Patrick Fancher
Google and competing companies are about to give a whole new meaning to the phrase “in your face.” Wearable smart glasses, aka Google Glass, are expected to be widely available to the tech-seeking masses in April, and I’m already cringing at the idea of how ridiculous people will look wearing them in public. Remember when the Bluetooth earpieces came out? Yeah. Those still look dumb.
Sure, these $600 glasses are like a smart phone attached to your face with an available camera, apps and the Internet in front of your very eyes… but is this a device we really can’t live without? A programmer in Ohio, who was recently interrogated by federal agents for wearing his smart glasses during the movie Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, may not think so anymore. They thought he was recording the movie with them, while others might think you’re doing the same to them. People don’t like to be recorded outside of controlled environments.
Will smart glasses be the next trendy must-have in the hands-free world we now live? I certainly hope not.
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