Whether it is for a research paper or for per­sonal inquiry, Wikipedia is most often the first place that I visit in search of information.

This web-based, user-driven online ency­clo­pe­dia was first launched in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. It now con­tains over 14 mil­lion arti­cles and includes lan­guages and users from all over the globe.

Since enter­ing the envi­ron­ment of acad­e­mia, I have heard pro­fes­sors and stu­dents alike speak out against Wikipedia and claim that it is not a reli­able resource for research papers. While this may be true in some cases, I would like to argue that it is reli­able on an over­whelm­ing major­ity of occa­sions, and should be trusted in many sce­nar­ios. (more…)

The Rube Goldberg team at Ferris, win­ners of the national com­pe­ti­tion in 2007, was recently invited to present a new machine on a Japanese game show to attempt to re-set their own world record. (more…)

As I rang in the New Year at 12 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2010, I was cel­e­brat­ing another new year, but there was also some­thing in which I was not cel­e­brat­ing which many oth­ers seemed to think they were.

What I was not cel­e­brat­ing was the begin­ning of a new decade.

There has been some con­fu­sion over whether 2010 is the last year of the cur­rent decade, or the first year in the next one. After all, a decade is 10 years long; I hope no one will argue that. Is that 10 years, though, from 2000 to 2009, or 2001 to 2010? The record needs to be set straight here. (more…)

Traveling to Japan to break a world record on tele­vi­sion is no sim­ple task, but the mem­bers of Ferris’ Rube Goldberg team have been asked to do just that.

The Rube Goldberg team at Ferris, win­ners of the national com­pe­ti­tion in 2007, was recently invited to present a new machine on a Japanese game show in an attempt to re-set their own world record.

The team, who left Jan. 3 for Tokyo and return­ing Jan. 16, will be pre­sent­ing the machine that has not been used in com­pe­ti­tion before with addi­tional steps to com­plete the task.

A Rube Goldberg machine is meant to per­form a sim­ple task in as many steps as pos­si­ble. In 2007, the Ferris team accom­plished a record 345 steps to squeeze an orange into a pitcher. (more…)

Neuroenhancers are very preva­lent, both legally and ille­gally, on the Ferris campus.

Students on col­lege cam­puses across the nation are look­ing to Adderall and sim­i­lar pills com­monly pre­scribed for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) to help them con­cen­trate on their school work. This issue is present at Ferris just as it is on most other campuses.

Matt McCoy, a Ferris junior in the con­struc­tion man­age­ment pro­gram, recently shared his thoughts about Adderall, which has been pre­scribed to him since he was in junior high.

“I took it today and was in the library for about six hours study­ing,” said McCoy.

Adderall is a form of amphet­a­mine that keeps the mind awake and alert. McCoy com­pared it to drink­ing a cup of cof­fee in the morn­ing, only tak­ing a pill that lasts for ten to twelve hours. He said he will usu­ally take his pre­scrip­tion in the morn­ing so that it does not keep him up at night.

Adderall has a pres­ence on many col­lege cam­puses for these effects that stu­dents see as a way to help cope with a work­load. McCoy said that he even saw Adderall being sold in one of his classes between two stu­dents who did oth­er­wise not know each other. (more…)

America is sorely under-informed when they are vot­ing on issues that are related to the sci­en­tific community

For too long now, sci­en­tific illit­er­acy has neg­a­tively influ­enced the polit­i­cal process, which in turn neg­a­tively affects the lives of Americans.

We are see­ing this most recently with cli­mate change bills strug­gling in Washington, and have seen it many times in the debates over evo­lu­tion and cre­ation­ism in pub­lic school sci­ence classes. At the heart of these issues, there is empir­i­cal evi­dence that weighs in much heav­ier on one side. When cit­i­zens aren’t aware of the sci­ence, their vot­ing against sci­en­tif­i­cally based bills impedes on the progress of America as a world­wide leader.

Thomas Friedman had an excel­lent arti­cle in the New York Times on Nov. 17. In it, he deftly tore apart the argu­ments of the “drill-baby-drill” pro­po­nents. The cen­tral point was this: If you don’t believe in global warm­ing, fine, but oppos­ing the research for alter­na­tive energy and only want­ing to drill for more oil will only sup­port inter­ests of those who we don’t want it to. (more…)

Ferris is tak­ing steps to remain in com­pli­ance with the 1974 act

A state­ment was recently issued by Joanne Gerst, the Associate Registar, stat­ing a pol­icy con­cern­ing the post­ing of grades that is to take effect immediately.

Instructors will no longer be allowed to post stu­dents’ grades in the hall­way using any part of the student’s SSN or CWID. The state­ment says that this pol­icy must be fol­lowed is Ferris is to stay in com­pli­ance with the Family Policy Compliance Office (FPCO), the office that over­sees the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA).

The stance of the FPCO is that, “these types of infor­ma­tion are per­son­ally inden­ti­fi­able or eas­ily trace­able to students.”

The pol­icy also rec­om­mends set­ting up ran­domly assigned num­bers that are only known between the stu­dent and his/her instruc­tor. It also warns against the risks of using e-mail as a con­fi­den­tial noti­fi­ca­tion system.

For more infor­ma­tion, go to www​.ed​.gov.

Plans are already under­way for this year’s Martin Luther King, Jr. week celebration

The annual Martin Luther King, Jr. week cel­e­bra­tion will take place from Jan. 17–21 this year.

Events and com­pe­ti­tions such as the MLK Poster Board Competition, the MLK Student Tribute and the MLK Legacy Award are already avail­able for stu­dents to par­take in. The Legacy Award is cur­rently accept­ing nom­i­na­tions. This is the fifth year of the award.

The Jim Crow museum, which is the largest pub­licly acces­si­ble col­lec­tion of racist arti­facts in the coun­try, is ask­ing for contributions.

The theme for this year’s poster board com­pe­ti­tion is “The Jim Crow Era: Then and Now.” Other annual events will be held such as the week long dis­play of the Tunnel of Oppression, the Freedom March and dis­cus­sion forums and fea­tured speakers.

For more infor­ma­tion on events and annual cel­e­bra­tion activ­i­ties, check the cam­pus cal­en­dar or watch for more details to be released.

A look at drink­ing respon­si­bly for pleasure

Why do I drink? To answer hon­estly, I drink because I enjoy it. I don’t do it to escape some hor­ri­ble real­ity of life and I don’t do it to show off, I do it because it is enjoy­able and can enhance sit­u­a­tions if used properly.

I’m not one to go out and drink 15 cheap beers on a Friday night, but I do make my way out to those par­ties occa­sion­ally. I don’t go to the bar and order shots of whisky until I pass out, but I do like the atmos­phere of a bar and enjoy a few bour­bon and cokes with some friends.

If you are some­one who enjoys being three sheets to the wind and mak­ing a fool of your­self, by all means go ahead. As long as you don’t drive or throw up on me, that’s your choice. (more…)

Steven Neshkoff is a vet­eran of Iraq and Afghanistan, and is now a full-time Ferris student

Neshkoff joined the United States Air Force in July of 2002, and served for six years. He is a vet­eran of the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I did nine months in Iraq, and a quick three month stint in Afghanistan,” said Neshkoff.

Neshkoff also worked secu­rity for dig­ni­taries includ­ing the United States Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, mem­bers of Congress and the House of Representatives, the first lady and President Bush.

“Anywhere they needed to fly, I pulled secu­rity for their air­craft while they were on the ground,” said Neshkoff.

He had the oppor­tu­nity to meet many high-ranking American offi­cials at the time and trav­eled the world. Neshkoff said he has now seen 22 per­cent of the world.

While in Iraq, he was sta­tioned in the south­ern end, only a short chop­per ride away from Kuwait.

While those serv­ing in the armed forces have many dif­fer­ent rea­sons for their deci­sion, Neshkoff said his was not a polit­i­cal one.

“You can pick a side, but a pres­i­dent gets elected and he is your Commander in Chief and you do what he says,” he said. “You can like him or dis­like him, but he is still your boss.”

He is now a sopho­more at Ferris and runs for the Ferris track and cross coun­try teams. At first, he had a hard time adjust­ing to col­lege life.

“Going from being told this is where you have to be at this time, look like this…now going to col­lege you are told ‘be who you are,’” said Neshkoff of his ini­tial strug­gle adjusting.

He is very pos­i­tive when look­ing back on his time in the Air Force. He talked of the ben­e­fits that he now receives, which includes a full ride to col­lege. He is a his­tory edu­ca­tion major with a minor in geography.

Neshkoff is also the pres­i­dent of the Veterans RSO here on cam­pus. He said that he wants to help oth­ers like him to not go through what he did in strug­gling to adjust to college.

“I’m glad I did it (joined the Air Force), it made me who I am today,” said Neshkoff. “If you see a vet, thank him. These guys lay their lives on the line…and some of them didn’t come home.”