Newsweek released a poll this weekend showing that 9 out of 10 Americans believe in God. OK, that sounds plausible given this country’s long history of theistic tradition. But something caught my eye later in article.

Nearly half (48 percent) of the public rejects the scientific theory of evolution; one-third (34 percent) of college graduates say they accept the Biblical account of creation as fact…Seventy-three percent of Evangelical Protestants say they believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years; 39 percent of non-Evangelical Protestants and 41 percent of Catholics agree with that view.

These numbers are much higher than I would’ve thought and I come from a pretty conservative area. We frequently hear that faith is in danger in America, especially when looking at trends in people under 30 ,but these numbers suggest that religion is very much alive. So alive in fact, that extrapolating the results of this scientific poll of 1004 adults 18 years or older over the entire US population would mean that roughly 140 MILLION people reject the evolutionary theory. 140 Million. Well, not quite 140 million considering the age distribution of the country etc. but even allowing for that, it’s more people than you can shake a stick at.

Even more interestingly, the percentage of creationist college graduates is way higher than what you would expect given the image of higher education portrayed in the media as a bastion of liberal anti-thesism. Perhaps religion is not in full retreat as some would want us to believe.

The Michigan Daily recently did a story analyzing the religious beliefs of college professors and it may impact their teaching. Not surprisingly, it found that institutions of higher education have a higher percentage of Atheists than any other profession. In a more personal anecdote, I was in the DI newsroom Friday afternoon catching up some work when a friend reminded me that Daniel Dennett (one member of the “unholy trinity” of atheism advocates mentioned in the article) was giving a guest lecture entitled “The domestication of Wild Religions” in Gregory Hall. I decided to go but I got bogged down in a few things so I ended up arriving about 20 minutes into it. All the while I was thinking “Hey, it’s Friday afternoon and it’s a philosophy lecture. Surely, I’ll be able to get in even if I’m late.” How wrong I was.

When I arrived, 112 Greg was overflowing with what I would estimate to be between 300-350 people. I am 100% sure that had University police been around, the event would’ve been busted as a fire hazard with the scores of people sitting in the aisles. They were even lined up in the hall and crowded around the doorway to hear this man speak. I could barely hear him so I went on my way but as I walked I couldn’t help but think that I just witnessed a philosophy rockstar.

Assuming that we can rely on this Newsweek poll (which is another debate), these numbers indicate that a college degree is no longer the dividing factor between creationists and evolutionists we thought it was. While some would say that this is a failure of higher education to properly instill the spirit of scientific inquiry in graduates, it is more likely that this will be seen as the backlash against controversial decisions we hear about all time involving local school boards and biology teachers in which evolutionary theory is gaining ground.

So what do you think about these numbers?

What an editorial cartoon that was published today, huh? It balanced edge and insight to provide a cutting and clever jab at campus culture.  “Yes,” You heartily agree, “because of your biting critique of sororities’ use of cultish uniformity!” And to this I say…not so much.

Yes, to make fun of a sorority is like, say… making fun of a fraternity; it’s much too easy.  The comic today was meant to be a critique of our young college society as a whole.  Too often people find it convienient and fulfilling to mock establishments like Greek Houses, when what is being critiqued is just as prevelant outside the system.  Sure plenty of sorority members look like the frumpy, shoeless aliens in the comic, but I know plenty of “independents” that do as well.  Guys are probably even worse at looking like clones, but those crazy sunglasses are a lot more fun to draw than ill-fitting jeans.  All in all, I think society needs to not feel a desire to fit into a mold, and also a drastic change in fashion sense…Oh, bt DUBS, did you see the new spring line from North Face?

Oooo, I like the boots….and it seems thong sandals are in, LOOKING GOOD!

Last night at the White House Correspondents dinner, Karl “Bush’s Brain” Rove joined “Whose Line is it Anyway?” stars Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood on stage for an impromptu rap. That’s NBC reporter David Gregory dancing backup.

I can only imagine what laughs John McCain or Rudy Giuliani would provide us with if either became president.

Last Friday while we were away on break, the Duke Chronicle ran a column by sophomore Stacy Chudwin. Instead of heading south to the beaches for her vacation, she came here of all places. Nope, she’s not crazy, she was just visiting an old friend. After sitting in on some lectures and scoping out the social scene, she reminisced about the dilemma that many students face in choosing a big state school with an above-average reputation or opting for a smaller, more expensive institution with a golden name.

Turns out U of I totally beats Duke in the party scene and gives it a run for its money (literally) academically. This is quite heartening.

A big salute to Stacy Chudwin and if any reps from other college newspapers stop by at the U of I, be sure to visit us here at The Daily Illini. It’s a party 24/7 here…well, we like to think so anyway.

When most people get home from work, class, a hardy night of drinking, whatever, they usually want to kick back and unwind, and different people have different means of doing this (that should be fairly obvious enough, right?). Some people snack on junk food while watching TV, some go for a run, some take a nap, and some catch up on their Facebook stalking. Some people, like me, use the Internet as a way to unwind. And this isn’t a fairly new or fascinating phenomenon or anything, I mean someone out there has to be watching all those YouTube videos and forwarding those e-mails about the bad luck in love you’ll endure if you don’t forward them back. What I often find myself doing, however, can be summed up in the following image macro:

I think in this picture I represent the braying ass more than I do the little Asian girl, to be quite honest.

I surf Internet community sites such as Livejournal or Deviantart.com (an art community site) looking for interesting or entertaining “conversations” to have. Conversations is in quotes because while some online discussions I engage in are more along the lines of casual, friendly dialog or well thought-out, genuine debates, most often divulge into train wrecks of mud-slinging between Internet users caught on either side of an irresolvable issue. And these types of arguments are, needless to say, pure lulz.

In my experience of engaging in these types of discussions and developing an e-reputation at sites I most often frequent, I have been called a “troll” on more than one occasion. On Sheezyart.com, a site that began as an experiment by two business students as an interactive art community but has since then deteriorated into a children’s cartoon site, I was even banned from their forums on the grounds of trolling. I have been called a troll for correcting people’s grammar and spelling mistakes, bumping threads (meaning I comment in a forum topic to bring that topic to the top of the list again) to revive moot arguments, posing counter-arguments against threads in which everyone is in overall agreement on the subject, and ‘following’ users from a given forum or community to their personal blog/site and beginning a new argument with them there.

Are all these acts really trolling? The problem in identifying a troll is knowing exactly what a troll is. Trolls are usually described as people who participate in online communities for the sole purpose of harassing or otherwise riling up its members. The term comes both from the mythical creature, something ugly and offensive that hides under bridges to come out and hit people with a big stick, and from the practice of ‘trolling’ a lure, in which a fisherman puts food on a hook and waits for fish to bite. So do these definitions describe my online behavior? Or am I someone who simply loves debate and considers being able to counter someone’s argument and maintain that argument as an enjoyable intellectual activity?

Obviously my bias lends toward the latter, but given how people have reacted to me this might not be true in all cases. Fairly recently I was called a troll when I followed someone who had an anti-Chief Livejournal icon to their personal blog and responded to a post they wrote about the Chief issue. I don’t describe myself as being pro- or anti-Chief, however I do have some opinion regarding how people discuss the issue, and I brought this up in this user’s post. A debate ensued, in which both of us used factual backing for our arguments (as opposed to a petty bout of opinion) until ultimately she (the journal’s owner) stopped the discussion short and insisted I was a troll for following her to her journal and beginning a argument on her blog. I responded that this wasn’t the case, because her journal was open to the public and she had every option of blocking me. She reconsidered, and the debate continued up until this happened:

(Click to enlarge)

Ouch. That’s what I get for being in a community like Drama_Awesome. Long story short, we sorted out this issue too after I convinced her that I really wasn’t going to make a big deal to some lulz community like Drama_Awesome about our private debate— it was just for us to discuss the Chief and just because I was interested.

Being called a troll can be both an honor and a disgrace. On the honor side, people acknowledge your ability to predict people’s emotions and get them riled up in that way, to maintain an argument against any offenders no matter what that argument is, and overall to give everyone a good laugh about it. On the disgrace side, people consider you a loser who sits around online all day and gets off on harassing people over inane issues, and generally gives people who come to forums to find friendship and have a conversation about something they’re interested in a bad experience.

Thoughts on trolling (or what is perceived as trolling) within a community usually depend on the attitude of the site that hosts the community. I wanted to bring this up because a few instances of trolling (some from myself on a lesser degree, I’ll admit) have been appearing on dailyillini.com in various forms, most notably in user “Sagatious”‘ response to the retirement of the Chief. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Why have posts like these been appearing on dailyillini.com? I believe this is because dailyillini.com, with its current lay-out and commenting feature, is still fairly new. This means people coming to the site will react to it the same they would other communities (online or otherwise) that they’re familiar with, and this includes myself. While I would say that most people are taking advantage of dailyillini.com’s commenting feature in a positive way to discuss campus issues with their fellow students, some are bringing in pre-existing modes of behavior from other sites they frequent and speaking their mind in whatever belligerent and inflammatory way they choose, often because they know exactly how to get their fellow students riled up on issues they know equally well.

Different online communities exist for different modes of discussion, and I strongly believe that dailyillini.com has the potential to become a medium for students to discuss and debate with one another their thoughts on issues that affect our campus, and I think that students who use dailyillini.com should push for this direction. Until this type of unspoken agreement about the purpose of an online community can be reached, trolls like Sagacious (and even me, if you think I deserve to be placed in that category) will appear and continue to test the waters…and the people in them.

Are trolls bad for a community? More specifically, are trolls bad for dailyillini.com? I think this entirely depends on how dailyillini.com develops as a medium of discussion for students, what types of trolls might appear as a result, and how the community will want to react to those trolls, be it by taking their bait or through administrative banning.

Suffice it to say, I really do believe dailyillini.com has the potential to become an online community for students in the way I described, and in that respects it might help to define the type of discourse allowed in the community. Should users be allowed to comment for the sole purpose of pointing out a grammatical error and insinuating stupidity on behalf of the writer because of these errors? Should users be able to write an entire page’s worth of anti-white bashing? Should users like me be allowed to start arguments with people, sincere or otherwise, for the fun of it?

What will you be using dailyillini.com for? Are you a troll?

According to signs up around the Union, the line to get into the BOT meeting will start at the north side promptly at 7 A.M. this morning.

With news of two Chief-related resolutions being added at the last minute, it’s safe to assume that this will not be your run of the mill gathering.

If you’re planning to attend today’s event or have already been, please share your thoughts about what went on. I would also like to remind you that if you have a laptop, you can access the wireless network almost anywhere in the building. Feel free to comment on things as they happen and I’ll try to keep up.

And once again, send your letters to opinions@dailyillini.com

One of the the simple pleasures I’ve enjoyed as college kid on a budget is being able to swing by the Union and picking up a double cheeseburger and a medium french fry for only 2 dollars and some pennies. But today, I have terrible news to report to you. McDonald’s has taken the medium fry off the 1 dollar value menu and replaced it with…wait for it…A SMALL FRY. In a bag no less!

I could go off on some meaningless rant about uncaring corporations etc…but I won’t because I’m burning out on midterms and so are you. So I’ll just say this:

Thanks a lot Illini Union McDonald’s. You just made my beautiful day a little bit darker.

In fact, invoking Colbert: You’re on notice. Right between .7 lead and BOT Chairman Larry Eppley. DEAL WITH IT!

If you’ve got restaurant related angst to get off your chest, leave a comment or email opinions@dailyillini.com

Faced with my disappointing Unofficial thread, I think it’s time to open the floor for discussion about the candidates for student Trustee.

I attended the debate and unfortunately, it was mostly student government types in the crowd who had their own favorite candidates.

Love one of the candidates? Hate one of them? Have no idea who they are? Post what you think about what I predict will be one of most exciting student races in years.

You can look for The Daily Illini’s candidate endorsement this Tuesday (the first day of voting).

Chime Asonye

Mike Cashman

Katie Dunne

Paul Schmitt

Pradeep Singanallur

Oh, how I wish I could code in some green color scheme for this occasion.

Use this thread to chronicle your experiences on this day of all days. Meet someone famous? Puke on someone famous? Break any personal or institutional records? Did you defy the administration and go to class drunk?

Or are you a disgusted citizen of Chambana who has to stay inside all weekend due to the wild behavior?

Post your thoughts here. In addition, if you’ve got some interesting or funny pictures from today, send them to opinions@dailyillini.com and I may post the best ones.

Above all else, be careful out there.

***Thanks to Lisa B of Exploding Aardvark for the coding tip. Cheers!