26 August 2004

Other "news" today:
  • Apparently while I was busy discussing file-sharing yesterday, the feds raided some file-sharing centers in iniquity. I suppose I should say "alleged" to be charitable, but I'm not feeling particularly charitable this morning—the electrical storms that have been going since early yesterday evening have left me feeling extra grumpy. As if you could tell.
  • On a more serious note, two unrelated items in two separate newspapers illustrate one of the most moronic aspects of major-college life. The Washington Post notes that "Varsity Athletes Get Class Credit," while the Chicago Sun-Times notes continued displeasure by educators with the University of Illinois's athletic mascot, calling it "an embarrassment" to the university's educational mission.

    As an undergraduate, I purposely chose a Division III school (that is, no athletic scholarships of any kind) to avoid the corrupting influence of college athletics as we know them. Things have only gotten worse since then. And now, for major figures inside and outside the university at which I went to law school to be devoting more attention to the bloody mascot (which should be dumped, if only because orange, blue, and white makes a particularly difficult to discern logo of an "Indian chief," let alone the disrespect it shows) than to the university's inability to retain promising young scholars anywhere outside of engineering just sickens me. It does not, however, surprise me.