The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 05, 2004, Page 3, Image 3
ADPi house key
posted on eBay
BY IRA KLEIN
TIIK UAMECOCK
Members of USC’s Alpha Delta
Pi sorority were surprised Feb. 23
to discover a key to their sorority
house up for auction on eBay.com,
the result of a prank by three USC
students.
In a strange chain of events that
began about a week and a half ago,
third-year business student Jay
Harper proposed a plan to his
friends, second-year business stu
dent Brett Younker and second
year English student Shawn
Eubanks, to play a joke on the
sorority. The three obtained the
key to the Alpha Delta Pi house
from a member of the sorority and
took photos of themselves holding
the key.
They then logged on to eBay, an
online auction site, where they en
tered the house for online auction
with a $10-million minimum bid,
to ensure that nobody would pur
chase the house key, they said. In
place of a photo of the house,
wnich normally appears on an
eBay auction page, they posted in
stead the photo of the three of
them holding the key to the house.
As more and more people
viewed the site on Monday night,
it became apparent that not ev
erybody was taking this as a joke.
“A lot of people were confused
and didn’t know if it was real or
not,” Alpha Delta Pi member and
first-year business student
Elizabeth Jenkins said. “The ad
visers and some of the sisters don’t
know these guys, and so they were
afraid because, as far as they
knew, the key to their house was
just out there floating around in
the open.”
Word spread of the Web page
overnight, and the three received
a call the following afternoon
from Kara Lane, a third-year ex
ercise science student and presi
dent of the sorority’s USC chap
ter, asking them to take the Web
page down.
“Most of the girls knew these
guys, and so they knew it was just
a friendly joke,” Lane said. “I even
thought it was kind of funny, but I
can see from an adviser stand
point how the prank really does
pose a serious safety hazard with
people knowing the key to the
house is out there somewhere.
There was no choice other than to
take the page down.”
The students did not face any
punishments for their actions, but
the Alpha Delta Pi’s sorority moth
er did report the incident to re
gional Alpha Delta Pi Housing
Corp. President Belinda Gillespie,
who called from Spartanburg to
have a talk with Eubanks.
“She basically just called to ex
plain the legitimate reasons why
we had been asked to take the page
down,” Eubanks said.
“I don’t think there are any
hard feelings — in fact, most of
the sisters thought it was funny
and even sent around a mass e
mail with a link to the eBay page
on it for everyone to see,”
Younker said.
Harper spoke for his two
friends when he said, “It was just
supposed to be a friendly joke,
but it got so big so fast. In retro
spect, we wish we hadn’t done
it.”
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gamecocknews&gwm. sc. edu
Business
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
the break.
“Looking back over the
years, we’ll probably do
about $2,000 less than usual,
so it doesn’t affect us too bad.
People actually come out be
cause there’s no kids in
town,” Brewer said.
Shlon said he knows
more of USC’s faculty mem
bers and staff will be eating
at Andy’s Deli because all
on-campus dining save
Einstein Bros. Bagels will be
closed.
Business also increases as
the weather gets warmer and
students prepare prior to
spring break, said Loose
Lucy’s owner Jennifer
McCallister.
At Ultra Tan, business is
steady this time of year, sec
ond-year nursing student
Austin Julian said.
“A lot of people like to
come in and get a nice base
tan before spring break and
come in after to keep their
tan, so I guess they can look
good,” Julian said.
Restaurant and bar own
ers can anticipate good busi
ness for March 20, when the
streets of Five Points will be
closed off for the annual St.
Patrick’s Day festival and pa
rade.
Comments on this story?Email
gmnecocknews@gwrnsc.edu
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Gates wants stamps
to apply for e-mails
BY ANICK JESDANUN
TIIK ASSOCfATKI) I’llKSS
NEW YORK - If theU.S. Postal
Service delivered mail for free,
our mailboxes would surely run
neth over with more credit card
offers, sweepstakes entries and
supermarket fliers.
That’s,why we get so much
junk e-mail: It’s essentially free
to send. So Microsoft Corp. chair
man Bill Gates, among others, is
now suggesting that we start
buying "stamps” for e-mail.
Many Internet analysts wor
ry, though, that turning e-mail
into an economic commodity
would undermine its value in de
mocratizing communication.
Though postage proposals,
have been in limited discussion
for years — a team at Microsoft
Research has been at it since 2001
— Gates gave the idea a lift in
January at the World Economic
Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Details came last week as part
of Microsoft’s anti-spam strate
gy. Instead of paying a penny,
the sender would "buy” postage
by devoting maybe 10 seconds of
computing time to solving a
math puzzle. The exercise would
merely serve as proof of the
sender’s good faith.
Time is money, and spam
mers would presumably have to
buy many more machines to
solve enough puzzles.
YWCA
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Services programs. These pro
vide after-school programs for
children and a variety of camps
over the summer. Lichliter said
students are welcome to apply to
be summer counselors.
“When I was in high school,
the YWCA was separate from the
YMCA,” said Kay Hunter, a
Columbia resident and secretary
to state Sen. Larry Martin, R
Pickens. “We would go to there
to play intramural sports and
participate in community out
reach projects.”
Hunter said she is amazed at
what the YWCA has accom
plished, such as helping former
female prison inmates get their
lives back on track.
Students interested in becom
ing a part of the YWCA can call
Lichliter at the YWCA of the
Midlands, 803-252-2577.
Comments on this story?E-mail
gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu
Conference
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Featured guest speakers include
•Foresight Institute President
Christine Peterson and Kathleen
Ann Goonan, author of the
“Nanotech Cycle” series. The most
well known figure to attend the
conference is Eric Drexler, founder
of Foresight Institute, who Baird
credits as giving “birth to nan
otechnology.” Drexler spoke at the
conference Wednesday evening.
USC students are welcome to at
tend. However, participants must
pay a $20 registration fee ($90 for
non-USC students).
Students are also involved in
organizing the conference. Made
up of undergraduates and faculty
members, the Nanoscale
Interdisciplinary Research Team
(NIRT) is responsible for studying
new and emerging technology.
Kiti Kajana, a fourth-year biol
ogy student originally from
Albania, is investigating the po
tential of nanotechnology in third
world countries. The team, as well
as the conference, operates as part
of a grant from the National
Science Foundation. The
Nanocenter, the College of Science
and Mathematics, and other USC
departments are sponsoring the
conference.
The conference is taking place
in the Capital Ballroom in the
Adam’s Mark Hotel at 1200
Hampton St.
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamemcknews@gwm.sc.edu
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