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 $168 mil-
2. AskforRidt
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lart-time help.
, apply at 11 Mi
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edical office %
all 979-255-27E
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Call 979-26$:
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nes exhaust K
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cabinet stare
30. Rlter t«ki
Cittens, Cats .’;
Occasm:-
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felines tor
:epr raws and ®6
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; 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:
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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