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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 26, 2001)
hurt' 'V- July 26. 2001 PINION THE BATTALION The death bell tolls Dot-coms fail because of entrepreneurs ignoring old laws of no profits, no business MARK PASSWATERS WANTED always loofe e positions in ing and Design elude: 1) Mact- sis 3) Prototype I fa dot-COITl Col- JT® ^ AD pa: '|lapsed in the and .he na r£»lddle of Wall anufacturing Cjtffiet, would it sofaCNCMI i The group a sound? 7i Monday this.: A|)parently, the sxible scheOdie: j* wer j s y eSi and g individuals r, /. rironment andsound IS a re- s improvemeffi sounding - thud. 15 tllis t l uarter ^ profits rolling 'nntechoiyniitecin, it may time to say that here ends bnngresurai: “New Economy.” Companies that Eastmark Dr £ . , T ^ i i • i . ■re using the Internet to establish a new global marketplace less than two j hard work* ®rs ago quickly are vanishing. Kids hips Ca :. still in their 20s, who had millions of ■liars from their Internet startups, B now living back at home with their fol s, wondering where it all went Bong. The answer is simple. They ■ed to run this new economy with ou: considering the rules of the old ■onomy. In other words, no profit, B business. (Even the larger, better known dot- se College sir c|ms are having trouble. I*Attendants flfr liaz<)n • corn > Possibly the most ia- ckground cfw mous Internet-based business, lost 18 it 301 Georgs: ftrcent oi its stock value on Monday tl0n when it reported revenue far short of ^CYGtf (hat had been expected. Amazon j ZX6,20,5K'- •posted a revenue of $668 million, idition, $4,000 u *hich is not bad — until one considers that it still posted a loss of $168 mil- 2. AskforRidt is A&M Boo lart-time help. , apply at 11 Mi lelivery.com edical office % all 979-255-27E r. part-time, resi Call 979-26$: 1 GPZ. Rus e nes exhaust K TS cabinet stare 30. Rlter t«ki Cittens, Cats .’; Occasm:- iers. Brazos^ felines tor :epr raws and ®6 I o r yvwi.taW'^S' MIES ; to share la" i/d, $300/mo. 379)694-1786. |lion. Amazon is said to be in negotia tions with AOL/Time Warner for a Bossible buyout, but that corporation # Host $374 million last quarter. I They are not alone. Lucent Tech- rpologies, one of the companies that | provided the telecommunications Bquipment for the new economy an nounced that they had lost $3.25 bil lion last quarter and planned to cut another 20,000 jobs to go with the 19,000 they had liquidated in Janu- ty. CNet Networks, which provides lechnology news, had to report that there, was not much to report — at a f218 million loss. The problem with these companies needed AS*' ;250/mo. +bis, ■’ !! / d 3bdrm/2bth 979-229-2545 is not their ideas, for the most part, but their complete disregard for stan dard business practices. To make money, there must be advertising. If there is no money to be made, the company will take a loss. A loss is a bad thing, and is not something to be compounded. Many of these Internet- based companies committed suicide by thinking that they could take a huge loss, then suddenly someone would take a look at what they were doing and throw cash at them. Eventually, someone did notice what they were doing, and those peo ple were called shareholders. Buoyed by the big ideas that dot-com CEO’s were spouting on CNBC and CN- Nfti, people bought millions of shares of inflated stock. Instead of standing pat and using that money to solidify their base and get out of debt, the dot commers surfed their way further into the red by spending that money ex panding far beyond what they cur- rendy required. Eventually, shareholders got nerv ous about the irrational business practices of the dot-coins and sold their stock — all of it. E-Toys, which reached a high of $95 a sharevjvyas trading for pennies before it went bankrupt. PSINet had stockpiles in the hundreds of dollars, yet was trading for under one dollar when it went under. Qualcomm’s shares were selling at rnore than $500 per share 18 months ago, and now finds itself in the relatively modest double digits today. One of the major problems with doing business on the Internet is ad vertising. It is difficult to get people to pay attention to online ads and even more difficult to get companies to buy the space. Without this revenue, it is tough to make a profit. Apparently, many dot7COinmers figured they could go so far into debt that investors would be too afraid to bail out. In many cases, their gamble was proven to be incorrect. The re maining Internet-based companies will either have to redesign their business plan or tiy to change the In ternet itself. Considering that their first attempt to change the world did not work, the proper option seems obvious. Many young innovators saw the In ternet as a chance to rebel and break away from the current economic sys- . tern, which they saw as “The Man.” In this case, “The Man” has succeeded in keeping them down. 'The Internet may be the harbinger of a new age, but it does not mean that the laws of economics are suddenly invalid. Many dot-commers have found that out the hard way. Mark Passivaters is a senior electrical engineering major. RUBEN DELUNA/THf BATTALION - >K: furnished, $200 . (979)777-5366 j Police brutality builds citizens' distrust , m (U-WIRE) MINNEAPOLIS — A friend and , m/f, 4bdnr-: j were attacked last Saturday night around 11 ub c» m - We were both manhandled and slammed ■gainst the trunk of a car. I was pinned to the car —Augustrove||y a stranglehold, and my arm was gashed to the ihome. $400' {joint of requiring stitches. R The perpetrators? Two members of the Min- itarting Auguf n *-'apolis police force. Our crime? Asking a >. +i/3biiis, 14 question. 4 J! J e f St° ut: > managing editor of Pulse, and I had ~3bdrm/2btT' been biking near the Walker Art Center when ’ills. on we passed a group of five squad cars. Curious, iara9a 2 ('e stopped to ask an officer what had happened. j^Blthough we both work for newspapers, we did- n i need the force of the media behind our ques- o. ff ons - AH citizens have the right to ask about po- —(ce procedures, and while officers might not be l! $3°5/™!,4 obligated to answer, they are in no way justified i Tracy. - ill responding with unprovoked brutality, iie thru MayM ^b :er refusing to answer our questions and ! furnishedthen harassing us over bike licensing, where only ’•b o. 764-6 :; I W as in violation, we gave up and began turning J around. However, after one of the officers sawjef n/2bth, furrSBlance at the squad car number, he suddenly de- oToi +1 p 3t fiJfided to change his mind and arrest us instead. I From that point on, the situation degenerate^ " into excessive force and irrational behavior. We were roughed up, patted down, cuffed and .rown into the back of a squad car. I had to visit /3bth! Rubies® 16 Hennepin County Medical Center for my in- 3 message, jury, and Jef was released around 10 the next ease at Meh morn > n g- We both were charged with “obstruct ing the legal process,” something we now have in common with Bill Clinton, the Highway 5 5 pro testers and one of the Hard Times Cafe owners. In summary, two bikers stopped to ask police officers a question and ended up cuffed, sore and bloody in the back of a police car. What’s wrong with this picture? As it turns out, we weren’t the only victims of police abuse that evening. That same Saturday night, another young man, Devonsha Thomp son, was beaten by at least five St. Paul police officers after leaving a drill team competition with about 25 other youths. Po lice claim he kicked a squad car several times, swore at them and ran toward one officer. Although witnesses didn’t see Thompson provoke police, they watched in horror as officers slammed Thompson to the ground, sur- rounded him and struck him with their fists, feet, knees and clubs. Thanks to the immediacy of television report ing and extensive media coverage, most people readily remember instances of police brutality involving Rodney King in Los Angeles and the World Trade Organization protesters in Seattle. But they probably don’t realize police brutality is more than just a rare occurrence or an isolated incident. It’s a force to be dealt with across the Beginning in late 1995, Minneapolis was one of 14 cities involved in a two and a half-year Human Rights Watch investigation into police abuse.” nation, even in the Twin Cities. Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton openly admitted this, once stating, “There was a problem and continues to be a problem of excessive force in this community. I’m not going to deny that. I grew up here.” In fact, beginning in late 1995, Minneapolis was one of 14 cities involved in a two and a half- year Human Rights Watch investigation into police abuse. The investigation found persistent police brutality in all the cities, ranging from sexual assault to murder. Hu man Rights Watch documented that police and city officials of ten protected their own, deny ing each new report of brutality and buffering the offender with a wall of silence. Many officers with long lists of complaints filed against them would contin ue to work on the force, and the little punishment meted out to abusive policemen was often long overdue. Seri ous reforms were only enacted when a brutality case flared into a media scandal. One might argue every human is fallible, and when split-second decisions must be made in high-stress situations, mistakes are bound to oc cur. Police officers’ jobs are life-threatening, and in their everyday work, they must often witness the seedy horrors of life that few of us can even imagine. Police regularly deal with the scum of humanity, and some of these officers become personally scarred by their work. Yet even so, episodes of brutality and abuse cannot and should not be brushed aside by excus es of “bad days” or “emotional trauma.” Viola tions of human rights should never be permitted because of personal error or mere contingencies. Some values must supersede individual circum stances. Can you imagine if doctors tried to pass off malpractice suits with such reasons? “I was having a bad day, I overreacted a bit in the oper ating room, and whoops, there went your kid’s life. Sorry.” The doctor would lose his license faster than a drunk driver. But when cops overre act? Police chiefs explain, “I think the approprW . ate amount of force was used.” But does this mean every police officer is ?; guilty of abusing his authority, violating the " • rights of innocent citizens? Of course not. Usu- - ally, only a few officers have records of brutality, although those few corrode the reputation and the public trust of the entire profession. And when government institutions — especially the police — act without virtue and without regard for people’s rights, they lose credibility and legit imacy in the eyes of the people. I’m sure I’m not the only one who now in wardly cringes when I see a police car drive by. Samantha Pace Minnesota Daily U. of Minnesota >ne for long for a flat if Eliminates ' '°ugh pages • Next Genera 2. The Battalion encourages letters to the editor. Letters must be 300 words or less and include the author's name, class and phone number. The opinion editor reserves the right to edit letters for length, style and accuracy. Letters may be submitted in person at 014 Reed McDonald with a valid student ID. Letters may also be mailed to: The Battalion - Mail Call 014 Reed McDonald Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-1111 Campus Mail: 1111 Fax: (979) 845-2647 E-mail: battletters@hotmail.com Letter from the Editor Summer '01 comes to a close, thanks This has been a wonderful summer for The Battalion. The paper format changed as well as many people and staff po sitions. Publication will end Monday August 6, 2001 and will resume at the start of the fall semester. It is unfortunate that I will not be present for the final full week of summer publication. There will be many more exciting changes this fall. Brady Creel will be taking over my position as I delve into my final year at Texas A&M. Please continue send ing your comments and con cerns to The Battalion. I have appreciated each and every one of my readers. And contrary to popular belief, I am proud to be an Aggie and attend the greatest university in Texas for which I served as editor in chief of the greatest college newspaper in the nation. — Jeff Kempf Editor in Chief The Battalion