Just 'spoofing'

E-mail spoofing is literally hijacking someone else's e-mail account and using it as your own. It's analogous to using someone else's postal return address to send out your own mail, which of course could prove embarrassing to the legitimate owner of the address while the perpetrator is hiding behind a shield, explains Dr. Larry Burriss, Internet and First Amendment issues expert. "Each user has a finite amount of space in his or her account. An unauthorized person using this account to send e-mail is, in fact, taking up resources that belong to someone else. This could be considered a form of theft."

Contact Burriss at 615-898-2983.
lburriss@mtsu.edu

Harassing Cuba

Should Cuba be a more tolerant country? Of course, says Dr. Michael Principe, professor of philosophy and expert on Cuba. However, given the threat to Cuba posed by the U.S., "I believe Cuba is amazingly open and tolerant," he says. Principe points out that the Treasury Department has announced an end to all student educational exchanges with Cuba; halfway through 2003, the U.S. has granted only 505 visas to Cubans for legal immigration; and Colin Powell recently requested increased funds for Radio Marti, which sends broadcasts into Cuba encouraging internal subversion, sabotage and illegal immigration. Rather than testing the Bush administration, Cuba is defending itself, he emphasizes.

Contact Principe at 615-898-2048.
principe@mtsu.edu

Feeling better about buying

Consumers are feeling better about their personal financial situation, according to findings in a recent MTSU Office of Consumer Research survey, with 32 percent saying they are "better off"--up from 27 percent a year ago. The percentage who said now is a "good time" to buy a house rose to 77 percent from 74 percent a year ago--and 61 percent thought that now was a "good time" to buy a car, up from 55 percent. Fifty percent said now is a "good time" to buy major household items, up from 37 percent. Consumers in Middle Tennessee have a more positive outlook than the country as a whole.

Contact Dr. Tim Graeff, director of MTSU's Office of Consumer Research, at 615-898-5124.
tgraeff@mtsu.edu