Mount Hood

Clinton quiere "llegar al fondo" de la conspiración alienígena

Por: Jamal Smith
Redactor de deportes

¿Estamos solos en el universo? ¿Están visitando nuestro planeta los extraterrestres? Lo que puede parecer el guión de una película de ciencia ficción son en realidad preguntas serias que se plantean muchos estadounidenses. Pues bien, no teman, Hillary Clinton acaba de anunciar que, si es elegida presidenta, "llegará al fondo" de la conspiración extraterrestre.

No es ningún secreto que el gobierno oculta cosas al público estadounidense, ya sea para proteger la seguridad nacional de la nación o porque los responsables creen que el público estadounidense no puede manejar la verdad. Sin embargo, los recientes comentarios del presidente de la campaña de Clinton, John Podesta, y de la propia Clinton, sugieren que Clinton cree que el público estadounidense sí puede manejar la verdad.

Posada, que encabeza la campaña presidencial de Clinton, fue preguntado por Jake Tapper, de la CNN, el 7 de abril, si Clinton revelaría información relativa al Área 51 y a los ovnis en caso de ser elegida para el cargo.

"Lo que he hablado con la secretaria, y lo que ha dicho ahora en público, es que si es elegida presidenta, cuando llegue al cargo, pedirá que se desclasifiquen tantos registros como tenga el Gobierno federal de Estados Unidos, y creo que es un compromiso que tiene intención de cumplir y que yo tengo intención de que cumpla", respondió Podesta.

Cuando Tapper preguntó a Posada si había visto personalmente documentos sobre ovnis durante su etapa como jefe de gabinete de la Casa Blanca, Posada pasó de puntillas sobre la pregunta y respondió afirmando: "El presidente Clinton pidió información sobre algunas de esas cosas y, en particular, información sobre lo que está ocurriendo en el Área 51. Pero creo que el gobierno de EE.UU. podría hacer un trabajo mucho mejor a la hora de responder a las preguntas bastante legítimas que la gente tiene sobre los fenómenos aéreos no identificados". Pero creo que el gobierno de Estados Unidos podría hacer un trabajo mucho mejor a la hora de responder a las preguntas bastante legítimas que tiene la gente sobre lo que está pasando con los fenómenos aéreos no identificados."

Clinton también ha comentado recientemente la cuestión, y ha dado esperanzas a los teóricos de la conspiración. En una entrevista a finales de diciembre con un periodista de New Hampshire del Conway Daily Sun, Clinton fue preguntada por los comentarios de su marido en la televisión nacional, donde dijo: "Si algún día nos visitaran [los extraterrestres], no me sorprendería."

Ella respondió afirmando: "Creo que puede que ya nos hayan [visitado]. No lo sabemos con seguridad". Clinton también prometió "llegar al fondo del asunto".

Luego, el 24 de marzo, Clinton apareció como invitada en "Jimmy Kimmel Live". Kimmel, que ya había hecho preguntas sobre ovnis a los presidentes Barack Obama y Bill Clinton, preguntó a Clinton si tendría más éxito que su marido en la búsqueda y publicación de documentos gubernamentales sobre ovnis.

"Me gustaría entrar en esos archivos y, con suerte, hacer público todo lo que sea posible", dijo Clinton. "Si no hay nada, digámosle a la gente que no hay nada. Si hay algo allí, a menos que sea una amenaza para la seguridad nacional, creo que deberíamos compartirlo con el público".

Contacta con el autor en jsmith15@wou.edu o en Twitter @journalsportWOU.

Nena, tengo tu dinero

By: Alvin Wilson 
Staff Writer

Many students today are only able to attend college with the help of student loans. But what would happen if the students borrowing that money weren’t able to pay it back?Screen Shot 2016-04-17 at 10.05.42 PM

According to a recent article published by the Wall Street Journal, more than 40 percent of people with student loans are either behind on payments or have received permission to postpone payments.

Roughly 16 percent of those people have defaulted on their student loans, meaning they have gone at least 270 days without making a payment.

John Leadley, professor of economics at Western, is critical of the numbers in the article because of the nature of student loans. Because of this, he said the percentages may be inflated.

“When you say there’s a high percentage of people who aren’t paying, that’s going to be a higher percentage than it is for virtually any other kind of loan,” said Leadley. “These are loans that they never take off the books.”

Unlike other kinds of loans, Leadley said, student loans don’t disappear.

“If you have a car loan and you stop paying, at some point they’re just going to write it off,” he said. “They’re going to recover what they can by taking back your car, and that loan is now history. If you declare bankruptcy, that loan can be wiped out. Student loans never go away.”

Leadley said that the accumulated bad history of student loans, which goes back much further than the history of other loans, can inflate the number.

Something else that inflates the number is the prevalence of predatory lending in for-profit institutions.

According to a report by the Brookings Institution, an organization that reports on economic activity, 13 of the 25 institutions where students hold the most debt are for-profit.

“What you hear the most about in the news are these student loans from for-profit institutions,” said Leadley. “If you’re applying for a student loan, the lender doesn’t ask if it makes sense for you in any way.”

Leadley said he thinks the predatory lending habits of for-profit institutions contribute to the problem.

“Part of it is the for-profit side seeing this as money for them, and not really caring if the student is ever going to get a job to pay it back,” he said. “If I’m lending money, and the federal government guarantees that I’ll get my money back if the student defaults, what incentive do I have to check?”

Western has one of the lower student loan default rates for Oregon universities, according to Collegemeasures.org, coming in at 6.1 percent. That puts us between University of Oregon (4.4 percent) and Southern Oregon University (8.7 percent). We’re a long way from being in danger.

Leadley still thinks Western students should start looking at loans in a way that reduces their odds of being in the 43 percent of non-payers.

“If I was a student, I would want to ask myself what the implications of taking out that much debt for my degree are,” said Leadly. “Get good career and academic advising. Do research about potential salaries. Ask yourself what your loan payments might be like. Take those things into consideration.”

Contacte con el autor en awilson15@wou.edu o en Twitter @awilsonjournal.

El chatbot de inteligencia artificial de Microsoft 'Tay' se convirtió en un desastre de relaciones públicas

 
Screen Shot 2016-04-10 at 9.19.55 PM

By: Jamal Smith 
Sports Editor

Microsoft unveiled its Twitter chatbot called Tay on March 23. According to the company, Tay was created as an experiment in “conversational understanding.” The more Twitter users engaged with Tay, the more it would learn and mimic what it saw. The only problem: Tay wound up being a racist, fascist, drugged-out asshole.

Microsoft designed Tay to mimic millennials’ speaking styles; however, the experiment worked a little too efficiently and quickly spiraled out of control. The artificial intelligence debacle started with an innocent and cheerful first tweet of, “Humans are super cool!” However, as time went by, Tay’s tweets kept getting more and more disturbing.

Some of the offensive tweets were the direct effect of Twitter users asking the chatbot to repeat their offensive posts, to which Tay obliged. Other times, Tay didn’t need the help of social media trolls to figure out how to be offensive. In one instance, when a user asked Tay if the Holocaust happened, Tay replied: “it was made up ?.” Tay also tweeted, “Hitler was right.”

Tay had some things to say on the presidential candidates as well. One tweet said, “Have you accepted Donald Trump as your lord and personal saviour yet?” Another of Tay’s tweets read, “ted cruz would never have been satisfied with ruining the lives of only 5 innocent people.”

24 hours into the experiment, Microsoft took Tay offline and released this statement on their web site: “We are deeply sorry for the unintended offensive and hurtful tweets from Tay, which do not represent who we are or what we stand for, nor how we designed Tay.”

“Tay is now offline and we’ll look to bring Tay back only when we are confident we can better anticipate malicious intent that conflicts with our principles and values,” the statement concluded.

Then, a few days later, Microsoft put Tay back online with the hopes that they had worked out the bugs; however, it soon became clear it didn’t work when she tweeted, “kush! [I’m smoking kush in front of the police].” Microsoft immediately pulled her offline and set her profile to private.

So, what does the Tay experiment teach us about the current human condition? Tay wasn’t programed to be a racist or a fascist, but rather mimicked what it saw from others. While some people believe that Microsoft’s experiment was a success because Tay effectively mimicked and interacted with other users, others view it as a complete failure because the experiment quickly spiraled out of control.

Contact the author at jsmith15@wou.edu or on Twitter @woujournalsport

Las tradiciones del Día del Árbol echan raíces

By: Jenna Beresheim
News Editor

The Arbor Day Foundation boasts Western Oregon University as one of five Oregon campuses to be declared and certified as a Tree Campus USA award recipient. In order to be awarded, five standards must be met.

These five standards are: a campus tree advisory committee, campus tree care plan, campus tree program with dedicated annual expenditures, Arbor Day observance, and a service learning project. Western’s University Tree Advisory Committee is led by Paul Finke, who started off the ceremony at noon.

The committee gathered together for the Arbor Day observance on April 8 and consisted of staff and students alike. The large group clustered near the north entry to campus and listened as Kristin Ramstad of the Oregon Department of Forestry presented her thoughts on trees on campuses, as well as the poem “When I am among the trees” by Mary Oliver.

From there, Ramstad introduced President Rex Fuller and awarded the campus with the Tree Campus USA award. In commemoration of the event, and Arbor Day 2016, a sugar maple tree was planted by the members of the committee.

Next, the group was led around campus to three specific legacy trees out of the total 11 on campus. At each tree, a student presenter explained which tree it was, the scientific names, and some fun facts such as whether the tree was poisonous or endangered.

First seen was a black walnut tree at the northern entry, which Kylee Wiser, a fifth year biology major, explained had often had it’s bark chewed on by Native Americans wishing to alleve toothaches.

The second tree, a Southern catalpa, was located in the Grove near Ackerman. Phillip Van Ginkle, a fifth year psychology major, explained that although the roots were poisonous, the fruit and leaves were not.

“I can attest to that – I had one in my yard when I was growing up, and I would always taste the seeds. They taste awful, but they’re not poisonous. I would not recommend trying it,” said Ginkle.

The tour ended at a petunia tree behind The Cottage, where light refreshments were served as Kathrine Stender, a third year Horticulture major, spoke about the tree and why the Arbor Day event is so important.

“The use of trees on campus for not only beautification, but learning, shows that their presence is vital to the school,” said Stender.

Contact the author at jberesheim11@wou.edu or on Twitter @woujournalnews

Detenido un hombre en Independence tras un enfrentamiento

Screen Shot 2016-04-10 at 9.34.30 PM

Por: Conner Williams
Redactor jefe

Un hombre de Independence fue detenido por múltiples cargos el pasado fin de semana tras un enfrentamiento de casi seis horas entre las autoridades policiales de Independence.

James Michael Muñoz, de 49 años, fue detenido poco después de las 5 de la mañana en un domicilio de la calle 6, cerca de la calle Monmouth, seis horas después de que los agentes fueran enviados inicialmente la noche anterior.

Muñoz entró en la residencia cuando llegaron los agentes y se negó a salir, según un comunicado del Departamento de Policía de Independence.
Se avisó a los vecinos y se les evacuó para preparar la respuesta del equipo SWAT de Salem.

Muñoz finalmente salió y fue detenido sin incidentes. Fue llevado a la cárcel del condado de Polk en espera de los cargos de uso ilegal de un arma, amenazas, coacción, asalto en cuarto grado, e imprudencia temeraria.

El Departamento de Policía de Salem, el Departamento de Policía de Monmouth, la Oficina del Sheriff del Condado de Polk y el Departamento de Policía de Dallas ayudaron en la escena.

Póngase en contacto con el autor en journaleditor@wou.edu o en Twitter @journalEIC

Graduation Checklist

hat tossing ceremony at graduation

By: Jenna Beresheim
News Editor
  1. Order your graduation supplies (gowns, caps, frames, etc.) by May 13th from Western’s Bookstore.
  2. Make sure all graduation documents and fees have been taken care of by now by contacting the Registrar office.
  3. Review your Degreeworks to make sure everything is order and accounted for (substitutions, exceptions, etc.)
  4. By Week five of Spring Term, reply to the email sent out regarding necessary name changes on diplomas.
  5. By Week 10, you will be asked to submit your diploma mailing address.
  6. If planning a party afterwards, reserve places and send out announcements at least a month in advance. Monmouth and surrounding areas are small and may fill up fast!
  7. Plan out extra graduations you may be interested in participating in, such as Lavender Graduation or Black Graduation, as some require you to contact them rather than the other way around.

Below are a few tips and tricks from WOU alumni:
“If you have a lot of faculty or staff you want to say goodbye to, you may want to arrange coffee or something throughout dead or finals week instead of hoping to see them for the .2 seconds on commencement.” – Joe Hahn, Interdisciplinary Studies, 2015.
“On [the] day of Grad, if you have family coming I’d suggest making a pre-planned area to meet at after graduation. The Grove is just a sea of people after graduation ends and you’ll save a ton of time if you pick a place before!” – Amanda Allen, ASL Studies, 2015.
“If you want pictures with people, try to do it before because you will be hungry and exhausted from the heat after.” – Megan Ross, [STILL CLARIFYING HER DEGREE], 2015
“Sunscreen for days, bobby pin your cap.” Yumi Kong, Criminal Justice, 2015.
“Wait a half hour before leaving town and make sure your phone is fully charged.” Hannah Barrie, ASL Studies, 2015.
Find more information regarding commencement at: wou.edu/graduation/

Coffee fiends rejoice

Por: Alvin Wilson
Redactor

Do you ever find yourself studying in the library, when you’re suddenly overcome by a strong craving for food and caffeine?

Well, my fellow coffee fiend, worry no more. Hamersly Library is completing its latest improvement: a new café.

The café will be called The Press, and it is set to open on April 13. The opening date has changed a few times due to unexpected delays, and it is still subject to change.

So why build a café, something that creates a lot of noise, in the library?

According to Dr. Allen McKiel, director of library services at Hamersly, the noise was part of the reason.

“Studies of library usage over the years have resulted in a conceptual shift in understanding environments conducive to and supportive of studying,” said McKiel. “Libraries have been converting their spaces from ubiquitous quiet areas with tables and hard backed and bottomed chairs […] to a variety of study areas that have […] different noise level zones.”

McKiel said the increased noise level shouldn’t be a problem, since students generally don’t study on the noisier first floor of the library.

“We expect the first floor to get a bit noisier, but it is generally not the place where students who prefer quiet spaces study,” he said. “As a student, I used to study in the cafeteria where there was a lot of undifferentiated noise—white noise. The quiet places just made any little noise stand out, which I found disruptive.”

McKiel said a café in the library would benefit students who want to study for longer periods without stopping.

“The decision to put the café in the library arose from the studies that indicated that food and drink were an integral part of the study habits of many students,” he said. “Having food available in the library encourages longer stretches of studying, since leaving the library to find food tends to disrupt and provide distractions that often prevent a return to studying.”

The Press will offer more food items than Café Allegro, and can be expected to be open longer hours (Monday to Thursday 8 a.m.–8 p.m., Sunday 8 a.m.–3 p.m. and closed Friday and Saturday.)

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