Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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THF MTY Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006 JL J L -1—A -LT _l_ J—A. - Page 11 i in ■ in Special THE GAMECOCK Uflipit.com sells a variety of items. Registration on the site requires an email address that ends in .edu. WEB SITE INVITES STUDENTS TO BUY , AND SELL Uflipit.com began as free alternative to fliers, eBay llathan Rouse THE UAMECOCK There is a flier at the entrance to Capstone happily proclaiming your need for a $900 home gym , system. While most fliers are not quite as likely to be useful to the reader, the flier system is still undeniably inefficient. It is rare for a student to actually read one of the many posters they walk by in a day, and even rarer to actually need what is advertised. In addition to these difficulties, it is almost impossible for a seller to advertise for multiple items at once and equally problematic for a buyer to actively seek what they ) desire. At the end of their senior year, two students at the University of Maryland noticed that they had a large number of things to sell, and no easy way to do it. Realizing that their situation was far from unique, they created a Web site, uflipit. com, with the purpose of bringing buyers and sellers together on college campuses. They believe that the site will revolutionize the college economy. “It is essentially a place for students to buy and sell and trade whatever they need,” | said Jarrad Lewis, one of the k founders of the site. The premise of the site is very similar to that of other online marketplaces such as eBay. Sellers register with the site and put items up for sale, and buyers browse and purchase what interests them. The site restricts its use to college students by requiring a .edu email address for registration. “We’re in 2006. You can walk outside and get on the internet on your cell phone, and yet college students are I still posting flyers to sell * their things,” Lewis said. Lewis made sure to point out that uflipit.com is different from other, similar sites, however. “The number one difference is that it’s free,” Lewis pointed out. There is no commission for using the site and no fees for registration. The site’s college users won’t pay a penny. Uflipit.com has other • EFUP • 12* ■»—— --- : 1 I Allison Stoughton / THE GAMECOCK Andy Mrotek, left, and Tom Conrad of The Academy Is... The band is headlining the Truckstops and Statelines tour. > Academy on tour Chicago band gains popularity, appears on TV, releases new album Rllison Stoughton THE GAMECOCK With a new acoustic EP and a national headlining tour already in progress, Chicago’s The Academy Is... is bigger than ever. The band, composed of singer William Beckett, guitarists Mike Carden and Tom Conrad, bassist Adam T. Siska, and drummer Andy “The Butcher” Mrotek, released “From the Carpet” Tuesday. It is their first album since their 2005 full-length debut, “Almost Here.” The six-song EP, available exclusively on iTunes, features two completely new tracks, along with three acoustic versions of songs from “Almost Here” and a cover of John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero.” The Academy Is... credits its live shows with most of its success and with good reason. Beckett’s Mick Jagger-esque stage antics drive throngs of teenage girls crazy, and his near-perfect vocals attract fans of all ages. Despite the face that most of the members have little formal training, each performs his respective musical duty with great skill and intricacy. Their interaction with each other on stage makes it clear just how close they are off stage. The band is currently headlining the Truckstops and State Lines tour in the U.S. with Panic! at the Disco, Acceptance and Hellogoodbye. The tour so far has been “flawless,” said Conrad and Mrotek. “I don’t think any of us knew how big this tour would be,” said Conrad. Both Panic! at the Disco and Heliogoodbye, along with The Academy Is..., appeared on MTV’s Total Request Live for Spankin’ New Music Week Rocks in January. Since these bands debuted, they have all gained tremendous popularity. Nearly all of the shows on the Truckstops and Statelines tour have sold out far in advance. “I think this is a tour that kids can actually talk about and remember for a while,” Conrad said. Before departing for the tour, The Academy Is... made their second trip to the UK for their Ambitious Ones and Smoking Guns tour with Panic! at the Disco. “England’s a pretty interesting market because the first time a band goes out there, if people like them, people love them. So the second time going-there was interesting because we didn’t have the same ‘new band’ thing. So, we were received quite well, better than before,” says Mrotek. So, what’s next for The Academy Is...? They will tour Japan and then start working on perfecting songs for their new album. They have recently confirmed a European tour with Fall Out Boy in the spring and will be on the Vans Warped Tour throughout the summer. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu The old dictionary: your new best friend Hefty tome provides fun, interesting information Rlexis flrnone THE MIX EDITOR If taking the required copy editing course as a print journalism student has taught me anything this semester, it has taught me how to use the dictionary. Thankfully the course has also brought to light how to use proper grammar in my speech, so I know the phrase, “I’d like to get to know you more better,” uttered on a recent tragic episode of an MTV reality dating show, is wrong. It has also enhanced writing. (If I didn’t use it in most of my writing, the copy editors here would kill me.) Have you ever actually looked at the dictionary as a resource aside from learning how to sppll and define fun words (like “lobster shift,” an informal term for the night shift of a newspaper staff, or any working force, derived from the fact that lobsters were considered stupid, which, obviously, is just not true)? Have you ever opened your dictionary and realized the smorgasbord of knowledge that abounds? In the words of Noxeema Jackson in ‘*Too Wong Foo: Thanks for - everything, Julie Newmar,” it is Nick Esares / THE GAMECOCK You may not know that the humble dictionary contains a reference section that can tell you all the U.S. presidents or city populations the world over. “fabulous, simply fabulous.” Let’s flip to the back of our trusty book, shall we? We have a reference supplement just for the information you’ll find on the subsequent pages. Then come the punctuation rules, the nations of the world, then the world city populations, geological time charts, constellations and something my roommate found interesting, all the president’s of the United States. Heading back to the more informative side of the dictionary: the definitions. There are words in here that you might never have heard of but could be very useful to you. Unfortunately, those who know these words often use them at the wrong time or in the wrong context. How you use a synonym for a word is important. People will often replace a word with one they assume A HOWTO • 13 Hello, my name is Michael Baumann First-year journalism student WHAT IS SOMETHING INTERESTING ABOUT YOUR HOMETOWN? The Philadelphia Flyers practice in Vorhees, N.J. WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO COME TO SOUTH CAROLINA? Because they gave me a lot of money and I knew that I would meet wonderful people like Rachael Taft, Becca Tedesco, Kate White, Laura Golson, Sarah PROFILE • IP