Opinion

Dear Editor, In Wednesday’s article“Letting Kids be Kids“ about Camp Kesem and AEPi’s Iration benefit concert,AEPi Concert Chair Jason Pearl is referenced with the following; “Pearl would not confirm or deny if100percent of proceeds from ticket sales would go toward Camp Kesem.“ I want to clarify that all proceeds will in fact go to Camp Kesem.

Saying “that’s so gay” has seemingly become a part of our daily language as children and young adults.Initially,it may seem as though there’s nothing wrong with saying it because there’s no apparent victim,especially when most people assume that the people they know are straight.But for some children,like Carl Walker-Hoover,just being straight is not enough to keep them from becoming victim of taunting words like “you’re gay.“

Facebook.Don’t even pretend that you’re not into it.Several hours of your week are probably dedicated to wasting time on this ridiculous,yet somehow simultaneously amazing,networking system.And it’s not just stalking friends or reading updates about how “Jen is currently eating homemade coleslaw while wearing her new underwear.“

I‘ve got beef with you,Internet.Everyone seems to be mighty impressed by your whole“heralding in the Information Age“ bull,but I can see right through the shenanigans.The truth is,you fail.Internet,here are10things I hate about you:

Being an English major, I’m familiar with drafts: rough drafts, first drafts, final drafts. People are like that too – we all start out a complete mess but through things like school, parents and friends, we learn. Other people can grow through us too, and now everyone’s just a clusterf*ck of self-betterment.

Who doesn’t love constant assessment? Despite the endless fits of whining you’ll likely hear from your ill-prepared peers during the next few weeks of midterms,the answer is nobody.Everyone has their own way of showing it,but deep down inside we all share that desire to grade,or be graded by,someone other than ourselves.

The animal rights activist group Stop Animal Exploitation Now recently purchased airtime on several TV stations in California in order to make a strong point about the California National Primate Research Center.The commercial contends that the research center,which is affiliated with several UC campuses including UC Davis,allegedly perpetuates practices that needlessly torture the primates being used at the center.

UC Davis officials trumpeted the news proudly the week before Picnic Day– “Safe Party Initiative cuts students‘ high-risk drinking,” read a story in the Sacramento Bee. “Report:Binge drinking declines,” read another in the Davis Enterprise. If you had only read the headlines,you might have thought UC Davis students had given up hard drinking altogether,trading in those ubiquitous red Solo cups for bluebooks and#2pencils.

Friday morning I got a text from a friend asking me if I’d like to accompany her to the Undergraduate Research,Scholarship and Creative Activities Conference the following afternoon to see her roommate present some research she’d been working on.Slightly embarrassed,I asked for more information and admitted I had never heard of the conference before.

So at the risk of furthering Twitter’s disturbingly expansive reach into popular culture,I’m going to spend this week talking about it.Putting aside for a moment that the concept of Twitter is more than a little mystifying (despite many millions of dollars in funding from venture capitalists,it has yet to produce even a single dollar of revenue),let’s discuss a frightening concept that’s been spread in recent weeks:Twitterjournalism (my initial thinking when I heard the phrase was “Oh dear God,” followed by banging my head against my desk.Twitter journalism? What?).

The American auto industry is one hell of a lemon.This week,governmental debt bringers are sinking another$5.5billion in taxpayer money into GM and Chrysler,two sputtering corporate giants who can no longer findfirstgear.In realistic terms,this cash is just a survival stopgap– without intelligent cooperation between industry and government,loans won’t repair the auto market,just buy it another tank of gas.In short,we need to put new ideas at the wheel. (Man,I really went full throttle into that car metaphor.)

About three weeks ago I was sitting in my room minding my own business,listening to the rain pitter-patter gently against my window,when it hit me.Without warning.On the forehead. It was water,and itwas leaking through my ceiling.