Spinnaker [Distributed: Wednesday, January 17, 2007]

RateMyProfessor.com has been online longer than even the most seasoned University of North Florida students spend on their BA's: eight years.

With close to a decade on the Web, RateMyProfessor.com has been used by 6,000 schools throughout the USA, Canada, UK, and Ireland to rate over 1 million professors. North Florida students have used RateMyProfessor.com to pass judgment on 983 instructors of their own.

Signing up for the Web site is almost as easy as guessing what one does on RateMyProfessor.com. Once logged in, students can look for any professor they would like to critique and then do so in regards to easiness, helpfulness, clarity, and hotness, all on scales ranging upward from one to five. Each individual evaluation is averaged with others the professor has received, and an overall average between one and five is established, followed by a scale of smiley and sad faces for good and bad professors respectively.

If a professor is awarded hot points, they are granted the distinguished and coveted mark of the red pepper. While the red peppers and super-adult smiley face grading scale seem a little trivial, the real substance of the Web site lies in the written comments posted alongside each evaluation.

For many, it is the comments from their peers that help them to determine which professors to take and which to avoid.

"I think it's the most effective tool for finding the right professor," said Troy Schmidt, a junior political science major. "I think the comments are pretty accurate for how the professor teaches," Schmidt said.

Katherine Zinicola, a junior majoring in accounting, said RateMyProfessor.com helped her decide which professors to study with. She also said she was careful not to let the opinions of others completely influence her choice.

"You have to pick and choose," Zinicola said. "Seventy-five percent of it is opinion and no reason. You need a reason. Some people complain about too much work, but others need the work to understand. It can be too opinionated."

Zinicola isn't the only one concerned over the possible bias of the posted comments on RateMyProfessor.com.

Garry Dodds, a senior sociology major, said he's never visited the Web site.

"I don't use it because it's too subjective," Dodds said. "Bad teachers can give you some of the best learning experiences. It just may not be on their subject."

Opinions like these sum up the overall feeling towards RateMyProfessor.com.

Students use it, but they remain aware that the comments are heavily based on opinion. With no way of talking to the person who posted the comment, students have to be cautious. But what about the professors? How do they feel about spending years upon years sharpening their knowledge only to be anonymously slandered by comments like "he will destroy you like an academic ninja" or "his class was like milk, good for two weeks"?

Surprisingly, they don't seem fazed. Dr. Philip Kaplan, an associate professor of history at UNF, said he visited RateMyProfessor.com only once. Kaplan noted that it was important for students to find the right professor for their individual learning styles, and RateMyProfessor.com should really only be used as a supplement to talking with other students about possible instructors.

"My feeling is that it is useful, but hearing from fellow students is probably the best," Kaplan said. "You don't know who is posting, you're better off just contacting your friends."

While most students don't post comments on RateMyProfessor.com, many have visited it at some point. Even students who haven't used the site, like Dodds, have an idea of what service the Web site provides. The general consensus between the group of students who use the site, those who don't use the site, and professors, is while RateMyProfessor.com gives students a voice less secretive than that granted in a course evaluation, it also provides them with a screen of anonymity that allows them to post whatever they want, whether it is based on fact or not.

Students should be weary of posts which make outlandish claims and do nothing more than berate a teacher for actions that don't effect the in-class learning experience. Besides, how seriously can a Web site be taken when it uses smiles and frowns as representations of good and bad?

'Children of Men' delivers vision of future

The world is a scary place. Catastrophic wars and conflicts are going on across the world and the very real threat of nuclear violence hangs over the world like a mushroom cloud.

Although "Children of Men," a little-heralded movie by Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron, does little to calm these fears, it provides an example of what could happen if our generation continues down the same path.

With a distinct lack of publicity, "Children of Men" was recently released and is seeking to carve out its own niche in the genre of dystopian futures, also known as 1984 and Blade Runner.

An adaptation of a book by English novelist P.D. James, "Children of Men" is set in the last bastion of "civilization" in a growingly chaotic world. The film's 2027 version of Britain is a police state with an Abu Ghraib approach to detaining immigrants. Due to unknown causes (genetic experimentation and pollution are hinted at), mankind has become infertile. A child hasn't been brought into the world in a little over 18 years.

The movie starts off with a bang - literally - as the main character Theo (Clive Owen) is introduced shortly before a terrorist bomb rips through a coffeehouse he occupied mere seconds before. A disillusioned former political activist, Theo's idealism was shattered after his son succumbed to the flu pandemic of 2008.

His journey begins as he is kidnapped by the group responsible for the aforementioned bombing. While held captive, Theo is greeted by the mother of his child (Julianne Moore), now the leader of the terrorist organization. He is recruited to help transport an African refugee named Kee out of the country (Clare-Hope Ashitey).

Unbeknownst to Theo is that Kee holds within her the last glimmer of hope for an otherwise doomed world.

At its heart, "Children of Men" is an exacting commentary on how our world can quickly change for the worse. Despite this, the most compelling transformation is the one Theo undergoes over the course of the film. Previously content to whittle down his remaining days in a desk job, Theo goes from disenchanted cubicle-dweller to ardent protector of Kee.

Owen does an amazing job of adding emotional gravitas to a character that has spent years using alcohol and apathy as an anesthetic for his internal turmoil. In Kee, Theo finds a newfound reason to live and a way to atone for ages of listless disregard.

Michael Caine plays a supporting role as Owen's burned-out comic foil, Jasper. An older gentleman who enjoys herbology and the expression, "amigo," Caine is the main source of levity throughout the movie.

One of the lighter scenes in the film shows Jasper offering his homegrown strawberry-flavored pot to Theo. Not simply the comedic relief, Japer reveals most of the background details on Owen's character and the ultimate fate of Theo's child.

The visionary responsible for injecting a much-needed dose of maturity and darkness into the Harry potter franchise with his work on "The Prisoner of Azkaban," the film's director Alfonso Cuaron first rose to worldwide prominence as the writer, producer and director of the critically hailed drama, "Y tu Mama Tambien."

Taken from a purely technical perspective, "Children of Men" is an absolute joy to behold for devoted cinephiles. Cuaron's use of handheld cameras during tense action sequences is a solid choice, as the drama is presented completely unadulterated. Instead of chopping the action sequences into indistinguishably quick cuts, Cuaron allows everything to progress organically, as if through the eyes of an unbiased observer. The camera is simply an unwitting spectator in the events unfolding, as it closely follows Theo and company through the smog of war.

While the color scheme of the film is primarily relegated to muted grays and earth tones, every shot is visually dense. Newspaper clippings, graffiti, advertisements and debris riddle the hollowed-out atmosphere, delivering a tremendous amount of exposition without relying on ponderous speeches. The frequent inclusion of advertisements for a suicide drug truly brings into focus the dire state of this dystopian future.

Beautifully shot, intelligently scripted and well acted, this is easily one of the best films of 2006 (it debuted in limited release on Dec. 25). "Children of Men" shows that there is still a place in Hollywood for films with artistic and social merit.

Safety and awareness may help protect against date rape drugs

Every two and a half minutes someone is sexually assaulted in the United States, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.

A sexual assault is any unwanted or forced sexual conduct, according to RAINN. Date rape drugs sometimes play a role in sexual assaults. Date rape drugs are also known as drug-facilitated sexual assaults.

Three common date rape drugs are GHB, Ketamine and Rohypnol, according to the National Women's Health Information Center's Web site.

GHB can be in the form of a pill, powder or liquid. GHB is legal in the United States and is used to help treat narcolepsy. Ketamine is a white powder that is also legal in the United States. Ketamine is most commonly used in veterinary clinics to sedate animals.

Rohypnol is the only date rape drug that is illegal in the United States. Rohypnol is a pill that turns into liquid when dissolved. This drug is used as an anesthetic and to help treat sleep problems. Rohypnol is commonly smuggled through Mexico into the United States.

Date rape drugs are usually dropped into drinks and dissolve quickly. Date rape drugs have no smell, taste or color so taking them without knowing is common. A common symptom of date rape drugs is not being able to remember what happened. Date rape drugs can cause drowsiness, black outs, blurred vision and other symptoms.

Milton "Sarge" Hall, rape awareness educator at the University of North Florida advises that students have knowledge of and are aware of date rape drugs prior to a situation occurring.

"Watch your drinks, whether in public or closed places," Hall said. "Safe guarding your drinks and being aware are preventative measures."

Another preventative measure is to use the buddy system, Hall said. Having a friend with you watching your drink when you can't may help prevent someone tampering with your drink.

If preventative measures aren't enough and someone has been sexually assaulted, action needs to be taken right away. Don't change clothes, take a shower or urinate before getting help, according to the National Women's Health Center's Web site.

"First thing to do is to call the police, get the person in (to the Sexual Assault Center) for an exam and have a toxicology report," said Sharon Gardner, the Program Manager for Jacksonville's Sexual Assault Center.

Date rape drugs only stay in a person's system for a matter of hours, so the sooner someone can have a toxicology report the better, according to Gardner.

If a victim of a sexual assault, the Sexual Assault Center can help. It can provide a staff member who will go to court with the victim, help answer questions, discuss feelings and get counseling for the victim, according to Gardner.

In case of a sexual assault or any other crisis, please call 911 or UNF's 24-hour Crisis Line at 620-1010.

Sound bytes: MP3 players may harm young listeners' hearing

About two years ago, University of California, Irvine, professor Fan-Gang Zeng started noticing something alarming among his students: unexplained hearing loss.

In each of his biomedical engineering classes, Zeng said, he's found several students with the type of damaged hearing you normally wouldn't see until 50 or 60 years of age.

It's been two years since the phenomenon began. And that's about how long it's been since the MP3 player became a campus staple for college students nationwide.

"We can't say for sure it's from MP3 players, but I don't know what else has changed," said Zeng, a researcher specializing in hearing loss. "The climate and the food are the same."

Another UCI hearing expert, Dr. Hamid Djalilian, is also concerned about the effects of MP3 players, saying parents are bringing in more and more teenagers complaining of ringing in their ears.

Young children can suffer even more damage from loud music or toys, because their ear canals are shorter and not fully developed.

"A lot of times it's not recognized, because kids don't complain," Djalilian said.

Experts say the problems are probably caused by the use of "ear buds" that sit inside the ear, coupled with the increased length of listening time available, compared to previous portable music players.

Most MP3 players come with stock ear buds, which unlike headphones that sit outside the ear, fit snugly in the ear canal and do not allow any sound to escape.

Because the sound is digital, listeners can crank it up louder without the distortion faced by previous technologies.

One of Apple's initial slogans for the iPod was "Play It Loud."

And, because MP3 players can store hours and hours of music, users can listen all day without stopping producing an unending barrage of sound.

At least with older audio devices such as portable compact disc players, the listener had to stop and change the CD or restart it.

Over the past year, MP3 manufacturers have begun to respond to complaints about the problem.

A class action suit was filed against Apple Computer in February in U.S. District Court in San Jose, alleging that the company had not done enough to protect its customers' hearing and seeking to force Apple to offer a way to limit volume.

A few weeks later, Apple introduced a free software upgrade that allows owners to set volume limits on their iPods. Parents can create limits that kids can't change at will.

An Apple spokesman did not return a phone call seeking comment.

"If it were my kid, I would make sure they never have that iPod more than Level 6 volume," Djalilian said. "At Level 7, you can listen for four hours a day or so, after that there's a potential for hearing loss. At Level 8, no more than an hour and a half."

When sound waves enter your ears, they vibrate tiny hairlike cells, sending nerve impulses to your brain that tell you to hear.

Loud noises damage those hair cells, usually temporarily at first, when they can be bent out of shape. This causes ringing in the ears or temporary deafness.

Extremely loud noises, such as a close gunshot, can immediately destroy hearing cells.

But they can also be killed by repeated waves of loud sound, such as those coming in from digital music headphones or speakers at a concert.

The longer the exposure, the more chance of permanent damage.

Sounds that are 85 decibels or louder about one-quarter of the maximum volume on some MP3 players can damage hearing, at least temporarily.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health sets a safe exposure limit for workplace noise of 85 decibels spread over eight hours a day.

The maximum volume on an iPod ranges from 115 to 125 decibels, depending on the model and who's doing the measuring.

Apple had to pull its iPods from the shelves in France temporarily, because their output exceeded that country's 100-decibel sound limit.

In results released this year of an American Speech-Language-Hearing Association lab test of several models, MP3 players' top volume ranged from 108 to 125 decibels.

By the time you feel pain in your ears from loud noises, your hearing has been permanently damaged.

"The kind of hearing loss we're talking about is not going to show up when they're teenagers," said Dr. Brian Fligor, director of diagnostic audiology at Children's Hospital Boston, who teaches at Harvard Medical School. "It will show up when they are in their 20s and 30s."

Fligor compared the damage to the cumulative effect of too many sunburns on the skin.

"Doctors refer to it as acoustic trauma. Normally it comes from explosions and gunshots."

Fligor said parents should model responsible noise control for their children, by wearing earplugs when mowing the lawn, firing guns or using power tools, for example.

"Parents should have conversations with their kids about not abusing their ears at clubs and concerts," Fligor said.

Other experts agreed, pointing out that musicians now use earplugs onstage to avoid the kind of hearing damage faced by first-generation rockers.

"Most musicians are smart enough now to be aware of hearing loss - but pity the poor kids down below the stage," Zeng said.

"If you go to a concert, bring earplugs."

Fligor just finished a study of headphones used with MP3 players.

He advised users not to turn the volume up higher than 80 percent and to limit their listening time to 90 minutes.

"We call it the "80 for 90 guideline".

Music-induced hearing loss starts out so subtly that listeners don't know there's a problem, Fligor said.

"It's like a tooth cavity," Fligor said. "You don't want to wait until it hurts, then there's really extensive damage."

Former New Yorker Kathy Bussi, who now lives in Long Beach, Calif., said she was worried about her son's hearing when she bought him an iPod for his birthday.

Then, her brother told her that she could set a parental limit on volume.

"I said, 'That's great. That's spectacular. Let's put it on there,'" Bussi said.

"Every parent should know about this, because it's awesome," Bussi said.

Tips and tricks to improve students' writing ability

Sooner or later everyone has to write something - a thank-you note, a complaint, an apology, a eulogy.

If you hate writing assignments in school, and if you dread putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, facing that empty page or screen is almost as frightening as a combined root canal and IRS audit. What to write? How to write it? Will anybody read it?

And yet lots of non-writers do manage to write, and often do it very well. Writing is like cooking: You don't have to be a chef at a fancy restaurant to learn the fundamentals well enough to cook a tasty meal.

"Writing can be taught to anyone," says Dr. Nancy Castilla, who directs the creative writing program at North Lake College in Dallas. "I always try to find the strong point in somebody's writing. Nobody can write a page without writing something well."

The students in Judy Porter's social issues class at Bishop Lynch High School in Dallas, for example, didn't sign up for the weekly writing assignments.

A few years ago, one of her students got riled up over a letter to the editor of this newspaper. The letter disparaged teenagers, and the student decided she wanted to write a reply. With Porter's encouragement and help, she crafted a two-paragraph letter to the editor that was published within a week.

"She was like a local rock star," the teacher says. "I made a copy for all the seniors. I said, 'All right, this is going to be part of all my classes.' " About 20 percent of the students hate the weekly assignments, Porter said. But all have discovered that they, too, can write, and make their opinions known.

"I guess about 20 get published per semester, which means 40 a year," she said, "One Thanksgiving we had five in one day."

You don't have to be writing for publication to write well. Diana Booher, a communications consultant, was teaching a course on writing novels when she discovered that many University of Houston students didn't want to write novels; they just wanted to be able to write clearly.

"A lot were engineers and lawyers, and they said they just needed help on their job, whether it was writing a legal brief or an engineering report," Booher said.

Now she teaches executives and professionals at Fortune 500 companies how to write, sell and communicate.

There's no mystery, she said. Clear writing is just clear thinking. Here are some tricks, techniques, and strategies Booher, Castilla, Porter and other writers and teachers use to get the ideas and sentences flowing:

Get rid of distractions. Find a quiet place, turn off your cellphone. Get your tools in order.

Former journalist Tom Geddie teaches creative writing at Richland College and at Trinity Valley Community College in Athens, Texas. "Sit down with pencil and paper or at the computer screen," he said, "and start outlining what you want to say, why it's important, why it matters, what its impact is on the reader."

Booher leads her clients through a thinking process: "What's your point? What do you want your reader to do? What are the essential details? Just get the ideas down.

"The next step is to go back and put them in order."

When they're blocked, Castilla tells her students, "Just write something. Don't let your pencil stop. Don't worry about punctuation. Just keep writing. 'Free writing' is what we call it. For most of them, it overcomes inertia."

Change rhythms, says Terri Rimmer, who writes features for Associated Content, an online content provider. "When I'm stuck I try praying. I take a break, take a walk, take a nap. I'll read to get ideas, write down random thoughts."

"I always teach my students to make their first sentence catch the reader's eye," Porter said. "Because if it doesn't, the reader isn't going to read on."

Geddie says, "Get a good, clear lead sentence that summarizes your points, that answers the reader's question 'What's in it for me?' If you can't do it in one sentence, then do it in two or three," he said. "But keep them short."

Porter: "Refer to exactly what you're talking about, whether it's an article in the paper, or a television show. Make it detailed and specific so people know what you're talking about."

Short, simple words are better than long words. Short sentences are better than long sentences. Short paragraphs are better than long ones.

Castilla: "I try to make my students understand their goal is to communicate, not to express themselves. The move for some years now has been to clear, simple, direct prose."

All good writers read, then rewrite, Booher said. "People think that it has to be perfect the first time. They forget that people who've done it well do it well because they've rewritten and rewritten."

Geddie: "Back off a little bit from what you're writing. It's an old standard, but if you can, write something and come back a day later. Also, try to be objective about it."

Oddball Antics

CRASH! BAM! WHAM! BANG! SLAM!
After leaving a bar in St. Augustine, Fla., a woman got into her SUV, ran a stop sign and hit a truck. Then, she veered into a parking lot and smashed into two parked cars. She then went back out on the road and rammed into the rear of two more cars before stopping and waiting for the inevitable police involvement. She blamed prescription medication for the episode.

CAR? STOLEN? WHY, I HAD NO IDEA
A woman showed up at the state police barracks to be fingerprinted for a civilian job. The troopers used the prints to conduct a routine background check, and discovered there was a warrant for her arrest for stealing a car in Georgia. They found the car in their parking lot.

RIBID, RIBID, RIBID ... KA-BOOOM!
A mysterious outbreak of exploding toads was reported in a pond in Hamburg, Germany. Citizens were shocked when the amphibians began to swell up spontaneously and then blow up, sending their entrails flying. It turns out that it was caused by crows pecking out the toads' liver. This made toads' swelling defense mechanism malfunction.

WHAT AM I WEARING? WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?
A survey in England revealed that about half of British citizens talk on the phone while in the nude. Women are somewhat more likely than men to do so.

OCCASIONALLY, YOU JUST WANT A LITTLE 'ME' TIME
A young woman in Straubing, Germany, sent her parents a text message that she had been kidnapped because she didn't feel like going to work.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?
In 2004, authorities in India rounded up the leopards from a national park on the outskirts of Mumbai, because they were attacking the citizens there, killing 12 people in a month. But the environmental ministry has now ordered that the beasts be released back into the park.

WELL, HELLO THERE, HOW'S MY FAVORITE `CLIENT'?
A woman forged some documents so she could assume the identity of an Annapolis, Md., attorney who was out on maternity leave. She then used these papers to get into a Baltimore prison and have sexual relations with her boyfriend who had been locked up for manslaughter. However, guards soon saw what was going on and cut the visit short.

WHO'S GONNA STOP ME? WHAM!
A man barged into an optician's shop, knocked two people over and attempted to make off with $3,000 worth of designer eye frames. Two reasons he failed: the shop is right across the street from the police station, and the place is run by a karate instructor and a bodybuilder. It didn't last long.

OK, ONE, TWO, THR... KA-BLAM!
A man parked his pickup truck outside a convenience store in Hollywood, Fla., and lit an "extremely powerful" firecracker, about the size of a quarter stick of dynamite, and attempted to playfully toss it out the window. Alas, it went off before it left his hand. Police said alcohol may have played a role in the incident.

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EXPRESSIONS

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