April 10, 2007

Big Brother is On Campus, and Watching You!

On 10 December 2006, there was an off-campus shooting involving a University of Washington student. Read about it HERE.

Now the UW administration is considering "extending" the Student Code of Conduct, which raises an interesting question of legality.

The shooting has prompted the UW to look further into the proposal for an extended Student Code of Conduct — a consideration that has been ongoing for months — which would apply to students living off as well as on campus.

Well, that's all fine and dandy, but I forsee just a few minor problems.

1. Since when does the off-campus private life of an adult (defined as being over the age of 18) become the business of the University's administration?

2. Which parts of the current Student Code of Conduct, when applied off-campus, are clearly un-constitutional?

I'd be willing to bet that UW would dearly love to say "no student shall have in their possession at any time any firearm". Of course, they'd dress it all up in beaurocrat language, with clauses, sub-clauses, and other such folderol.

In fact, I'll be willing to put up Big Money - $0.25 American - that they'll try just that.

Any takers?

Posted by ward at 09:34 PM | Comments (0)

April 06, 2007

A Minor Tale Of Two Houses

OK, let's start the Old Wierd Ward Quizzes.

I will, from time to time, post a little quiz. If you guess right, you get to puff yourself up, and admire yourself in the mirror. If you're wrong, no one will ever know - unless you beat your breast and shout "mea culpa!"

Here's the first one, a tale of two houses, shamelessly lifted from Kim duToit:

HOUSE # 1:

A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern “snow belt,” either. It’s in the temperate South.

HOUSE # 2:

Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every “green” feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps, which draw ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.

Give up?

More gas

Posted by ward at 09:58 PM | Comments (0)