Opinion

Over the past few weeks, a group of protesters have stationed themselves in front of the U.S. Bank in the Memorial Union, protesting its placement on a public university. While the protesters’ concerns are valid, banks, and any private entity for that matter, can have a functional place on a public college campus. A bank’s […]

“Will you marry me?” [Beep, beep, pause.] “Let’s just be friends, OK?” ‘Atta girl, Siri. In October, Apple debuted the latest in artificial intelligence, their sharp-witted Siri, as a headlining feature of the iPhone 4S. The voice-recognition software was released in beta, of course, because technology meant to mimic human behavior is bound to fall […]

Senior year of high school holds such fond memories for me. That was the year I finally became thin and, by extension, relevant. After some rigorous soul-searching, my friend Sophia and I realized that all of our life problems could be solved by a simple weight loss regime; it was so obvious, we couldn’t understand […]

“It’s like people only do things because they get paid, and that’s just really sad.” Fans of Wayne’s World, and just comedy in general, might fondly recall this ironic line by Dana Carvey while portraying a ‘90s nerd/hippie/hard rock fanatic dressed head to toe in exclusively Reebok gear. In the scene, network cable stars Garth […]

Iran is in a serious time-out, having just been sent to the proverbial oil sanction corner on Monday by Daddy and Mommy European Union. Iran’s punishment comes after growing threats that the country is increasing funding for an already sizable nuclear program. The language used in describing this world news story is really that of […]

In Bertolt Brecht’s Threepenny Opera, gangster Mack the Knife pleads his case to the audience, asking, “What is burgling a bank compared to founding a bank?” When weighed next to the massive expropriations perpetrated by the banking industry, Mack suggests, a few pilfered cash boxes are insignificant. Yet, as we have seen time and time […]

On Jan. 15 and 16, the UC Regents held their first meeting of the year at UC Riverside. The regents meeting was once again interrupted by students protesting the increased cost of tuition. Protesters began a general assembly during the public comment session and the campus police cleared the room. This event makes it clear […]

If your student wallet is like mine, it is probably full of wishful thinking instead of money. And if you love to eat, an obvious shortcoming is not being able to afford pricey foods. Yet in an effort to stay healthy, many students continue to overspend on nutrition. In an effort to save money, many […]

I have a hard time trusting technology companies. That doesn’t mean, mind you, that I trust Congress. It’s just that we’re conditioned to distrust the people we inevitably elect. Tech firms, by contrast, are more often the objects of our praise and wonder. They’re supposed to be on our side. But the difference between the […]

It’s a tough time to be young and hungry. Youth employment numbers are historically bad. National student loan debt is somewhere north of the $1 trillion mark. And to top it off, a boomer-controlled federal government is racking up trillions of dollars of debt that they expect young Americans to pay for. In the dirty […]

Ahh, the good old days. Remember those? A gallon of gas used to be a quarter. If you found a dollar on the street you could take your friend out to that great new movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (yes, that was an actual movie back in the day), buy “soda pop” and popcorn and still […]

In the last few years, plenty has been written about the banks. Articles, editorials and blogs tell the story well about the greed and dishonesty that was and is standard fare by corporate bigwigs hot in pursuit of a bigger buck. The backlash is obvious, and nowhere is this clearer than here on campus. The […]