I Friday, July 23, 2010 TFi f: D \ i i \ Collegian Elizabeth Murphy Editor in Chief Kelsey Thompson Business Manager About the Collegian: The Daily Collegian and The Weekly Collegian are pub lished by Collegian Inc., an independent, nonprofit cor poration with a board of directors composed of stu dents, faculty and profes sionals. Pennsylvania State University students write and edit both papers and solicit advertising for them. During the fall and spring semes ters as well as the second six-week summer session. The Daily Collegian publish es Monday through Friday. Issues are distributed by mail to other Penn State campuses and individual subscribers. Complaints: News and edi torial complaints should be presented to the editor. Business and advertising complaints should be pre sented to the business man ager. Who we are The Daily Collegian's edito rial opinion is determined by its Board of Opinion, with the editor holding final responsibility. The letters and columns expressed on the editorial pages are not necessarily those of The Daily Collegian, Collegian Inc. or The Pennsylvania State University. Collegian Inc., publishers of The Daily Collegian and related publi cations, is a separate corpo rate institution from Penn State. Editorials are written by The Daily Collegian Board of Opinion. Members are: Kevin Cirilli. Jenna Ekdahl, Bill Landis. Elizabeth Mur phy. Laura Nichols, Edgar Ramirez. Andrew Robinson. Heather Schmelzlen, Jared Shanker, Katie Sullivan, Alex Weisler, Steph Witt and Chris Zook. Letters We want to hear your com ments on our coverage, editorial decisions and the Penn State community. ■ E-mail collegianletters@psu.edu ■ Online www.psucollegian.com ■ Postal mail/ln person 123 S. Burrowes St. University Park, PA 16801 Letters should be about 200 words. Student letters should include class year, major and campus. Letters from alumni should include year of graduation. All writers should provide their address and phone number for verification. Letters should be signed by no more than two peo ple. Members of organiza tions must include their titles if the topic they write about is connected with the aim of their groups. The Collegian reserves the right to edit letters. The Collegian cannot guaran tee publication of all let ters it receives. Letters chosen also run on The Daily Collegian Online and may be selected for publi cation in The Weekly Colle gian. All letters become property of Collegian Inc. Council should OK West End Earlier this week, the State College Borough Council, after hours of deliberation and a meet ing that went late into the night, reached a decision: postpone the final vote on the West End project. After a long string of similar decisions, this choice proves the council to be chronically indeci sive about important, con troversial issues. The members elected to make final votes and decisions are, ironically, avoiding making those tough deci sions. Though some may believe a change in zoning laws will lead to the West End becoming the next Beaver Canyon, this is not necessarily true. Instead of fearing the creation of a larger downtown district, THE NEAREST POST OFFICE? SURE. GO POWN TO THAT "FINKSLEY FOR PO6CATCHET THEN' J "RE-ELECT LEFT...FOLLO I TO A ’VOTE iMNOTSUffiSEP FC9C NEW; PDF MEAT, W,«.MP * m>cwm_ ' MEUNPEKTHEfc’ Palin’s creative Twitter vocab helps write column By Matt Fortuna Sarah Palin posts a tweet, and the Twitterverse explodes Sarah Palin deletes and repeats, and more readers are con fused Finally, sensing the moment of opportunity, Sarah Palin the public’s attention now fully fixed on her unleashes her inner Hemingway on the web. It all started Sunday with a sim ple 139-character plea: “Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pis refudiate.” Palin typed the message on her Blackberry. Perhaps next time she should type a draft first on Microsoft Word. Because doing that in the same way that I am going about this column will reveal those annoying, red squiggly lines underneath misspelled words. And in the case of that TVvitter the council and those working with it would be better off learning from Beaver Canyon to prevent a similar area from pop ping up. An expansion of afford able student housing throughout the borough is not a death sentence to any one location. As housing in places like North Allen Street and Waupelani Drive have already proven, communi ty members and students can co-exist with one another. But instead the decision is once again put on the council’s back burner. The inability to reach a verdict on the West End zoning issue is a move that harms everyone both student and community members alike. “But why would we ever waste our time with a meaningful, open discussion on race, religion or freedom, let alone one with a woman who... is potentially the next GOP nominee for president?” post, “pis” isn’t the only red-stained term. You see, “refudiate” is not an English word. So Palin, eventually alert of the gaffe, deleted her origi nal message and posted another: “Peaceful New Yorkers, pis refute the Ground Zero mosque plan if you believe catastrophic pain caused @ Twin Towers site is too raw, too real.” MY OPINION This time again, aside from “pis” no red squiggly lines poppecLup. Well, at least she’s getting there. After all, “refute” is an English word. Except, according to the 10th edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and I real ize there’s a chance I just dated myself here within the context of this new-age conversation “refute” means “to prove wrong by argument or evidence.” Students can benefit from new and affordable housing as the population of those enrolled at Penn State constantly expands. New and old landlords alike can begin profiting from renting out new buildings, and a higher population in the West End could attract new business franchises or even spur new local shops. A final vote on the West End zoning issue is imperative. As a part of the population subjected to the authority of the State College Borough Council, residents and Penn State students alike are owed a timely deci- And for the good of the borough, let that decision be yes. @?DiD R-ORim. TraPAYjrr CAGLECAffTOONS.COM nPjSjn b-j */1ai — m Wf That sounds pretty tough to do when dealing with a mosque. And, as several were quick to point out afterward, “refute” just doesn’t do it there. Not after “refiidiate.” Palin must have meant “repudiate.” According to Merriam-Webster again (I swear, these hardcover things still work), “repudiate” can mean “to refuse to have anything to do with.” So, after going through all of that, what Palin probably meant to say was that New Yorkers, at least the peaceful ones, (which just sounds so personal and direct to this cheery Big Apple native) should dis tance themselves from the Ground Zero mosque plan. Because, you know, any mention of Muslims and 9/11 is a very sensi tive issue, given this country’s recent history. But why would we ever waste our The Daily Collegian SNAP, CRACKLE, POP Come Swift-ly third album It’s not much of a secret that I love Taylor Swift. Her lyrics frequently appear as my Facebook status and see ing her at the Bryce Jordan Center last August was probably my favorite concert experience ever. I’ve been a fan since I first saw the video for “Tim McGraw” back in the summer of 2006. A girl with beautiful curly hair was hoping her ex-boyfriend would remember her by her favorite song by Tim McGraw. Having just gone through a breakup myself, I instantly connected with this girl. I bought her self-titled debut CD and listened to it on repeat for weeks and I repeated the process when her sopho more album, “Fearless,” was released. I listened as her music began being fea tured on Top 40 countdowns even more than country stations. I watched as Kanye West unintentionally made her a household name. To say that I’ve been anticipating her third album is a little bit of an under statement. I’ve been itching for new music from this girl since I saw her in concert. So today, when Swift scheduled a webchat to talk about her upcoming album, I listened in. Titled “Speak Now,” the third album goes on sale October 25 this year. “Mine,” the first single, will be released August 16. Swift confirmed “Sparks Fly," a fan favorite previously only performed in concert, will appear on the album.... On background: Webster’s This week, Editor in Chief Elizabeth Murphy sat down with reporter Paul Osolnick, who has been on top of the Webster’s Bookstore Cafe saga since the news broke that the store faces closure. Listen to Osolnick as he he speaks about feeling like a “storm cloud” every time he walks through the cafe’s door. It’s the third edition of Murphy 's regu lar podcast series that gives readers the story behind the story with the reporter, photographers and editors who helped put the story together.... Read more of The Daily Collegian's blogs at psucollegian.com/blogs. Wanted: Web Intern The Collegian is seeking a web intern for the fall semester to join its award-winning web team. This position offers a merit based $l,OOO scholarship per semester. We are diving into several new web ini tiatives this faU including a brand new website, and are looking for applicants with a working knowledge of HTML, CSS and proficiency in at least one of the fol lowing: Javascript, Flash, PHP Perl, ASPnet, or C#. We are also looking into mobile applications, as well, so a knowl edge of or interest in learning about mobile development is encouraged but not required. You will be working with the Web Editor, who also has a knowledge of these tech nologies. This position requires a flexible but steady time commitment. Your respon sibilities will vary based on your skills, but could include designing pages and/or interactive pieces for our site, writing scripts to parse and reformat old stories or communicate with public APIs (Twitter, Tlimblr, etc), or designing back-end man agement systems, among other things. An interest in journalism and being a part of an independent student newspaper is highly encouraged, as well. To apply, send a resume and cover letter to Editor in Chief Elizabeth Murphy at edltorinchief@psucotlegian.com. time with a meaningful, open discus sion on race, religion or freedom, let alone one with a woman who, based on recent fundraising totals and Gallup polls, is potentially the next GOP nominee for president? Instead, we can just play the guessing game. It’s much more fun, anyway. Thankfully for us all, Palin was alertly back on Twitter before day's end to clear up any misunderstand ing, putting her large following in place while she was at it: “ ‘Refudiate,’ ‘misunderestimate,’ ‘wee-wee’d up.’ English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!" Hook, line and sinker. No wonder nearly 200,000 people follow Palin. She’s a modern-day trendsetter of the written word. Maybe she could help me write this column while she’s at it. Then again, she already has, in so many more ways than she is proba bly even aware of. Matt Fortuna is a senior majoring in jour nalism and is the Collegian's Friday colum nist. His e-mail address is mjfs2l7@psu.edu. Hannah Rishel Collegian staff writer Elizabeth Murphy Editor in Chief
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