Opinion

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.

Super Senior, Why is it that upperclassmen find the DC to be such an enticing place to eat? I would like to understand so that I will be better prepared for falling victim to it myself when I check out of dorms.But seriously…the food is only good for days when a multitude of prospective students will be dining there,which coincidentally means that there is nowhere to sit,and more to the point you stare at the same food over and over and over again until some of it starts to look like it is just perpetually left over. – Trying to Regain my Appetite

A lot of men are unsatisfied with their abilities to attract women and have nowhere to go for help.And where they do go for help,they are met with heaps of misinformation.Most men learn from pop-culture e.g.movies,TV shows,magazines or other incredulous sources.This cloud of useless information leads some mentowardfurther low self-esteem,low confidence,feelings of inferiorityand hopelessness.

One of the least discussed problems at UC Davis is the under representation,both politically and in popular awareness,of the international student population. They currently represent around2,500students or almost10percent of the student population,yet at times they seem almost non-represented.More should be done.

Summer is rad– totally,way rad.Everyone wants to have the perfect summer.There are songs and movies and poems written by13year-old girls about it.You know that summer has hit when the Facebook statuses start gloating about it.48hours later,everyone is whining that they’re bored.