Opinion

I can usually get a laugh when I tell people I was first educated as part of a failed governmental experiment. Then, when I try to explain further that my unorthodox instruction led directly to me becoming a raging nerd and, indirectly, to a guy getting punched in the face four years later, I'm invariably treated to an incredulous stare. But it's true, all of it.

UC Davis recently became one of many universities across the nation to participate in Apple's iTunes U program. iTunes U allows college campuses to share multimedia podcasts through the popular iTunes software. This new tool can be beneficial to students, faculty and prospective students alike.

The end of my time on this page is fast approaching, hopefully, that is, until next year. But as I was thinking about this fact, it occurred to me that you, my readership of various levels of faithfulness, will have to go without your weekly dose of damn-the-man journalistic fury. With that in mind, I compiled a list of books, movies, songs and miscellaneous crap to fill the void in my summer absence.

Seventeen-year-old Magnus Carlsen recently reached the number five rank in the chess world. Like other prodigies past and present, his rise has been meteoric. But Carlsen is possibly the youngest player ever to accomplish so much in so little time. By any measure, his brilliance is so phenomenal that he has even been nicknamed the "Mozart of Chess."

"We took possession... in accordance with our customs, and we caught all the people," the imperialist conqueror proclaimed. "Not one escaped. Some ran away from us, these we killed, and others we killed - but what of that? It was in accordance with our custom."

On Friday, fellow columnist Zack Crockett ran an interesting piece on selflessness, or a lack thereof. Without much investigation, it would seem that much of what he said was true, simply because the reality is much of the worldis selfish. Selflessness is impossible - or is it?

The bugs are coming out. Little fly things, spiders, mosquitoes - they are creeping through the cracks of our doors and windows, hiding in the threads of our carpet and coming out when we least expect them.

n early March, The Sacramento Bee compiled a salary database of all state employees, which is accessible for free on its website. In the following weeks, several complaints were received, primarily from workers' unions who disagree with posting so much public information, including the first and last name, job title or agency and the base pay of employees.

California State Assembly Bill 2168 will be heard and hopefully approved by the appropriations committee Wednesday. The bill would relax the restrictions currently in place on what farmers can sell at roadside stands. Presently, farmers are allowed to sell only whole items grown on their property, which prevents them from making bottled water or homemade processed foods such as jams or pies available to the roadside consumer.

here are crushes in life that are extremely impossible (more so than usual). The never-in-your-life-should-you-or-even-could pursue this person kind, where you have absolutely no chance whatsoever due to the fact that they probably don't even know who you are and that it can be seen as "wrong," such as: your mother's best friend, your TA/professor or that guy in HR that is like, 16 years older than you.

As many of you may have noticed, this weekend marked the 39th annual Whole Earth Festival at the UC Davis campus. For some university students, Whole Earth Festival might only translate to dealing with the mass migration of semi-nude hippies onto the campus Quad, or avoiding the multitude of vendors trying to exchange hand-made dream catchers and hemp bracelets for the gas money needed to reach their next scheduled gathering.

Barack Obama is almost certain of a victory, but Hillary Clinton's one-of-a-kind determination to finish the fight until the end is something that he should worry about. All throughout this extraordinary campaign, America has witnessed that Clinton's monumental fighting spirit to withstand the most devastating defeat is always strongest when struggling desperately for survival.

The three-page paper is actually a five-page paper.

"You're joking," I say over the phone.

"Nope."

Scholastically speaking, I don't know that much about art. That's due to the fact that I'm a lazy bum. Sure, I could have taken at least one art history class during my college career, but I didn't. The reasons aren't that good. I didn't want to read a super long textbook with tiny print. I didn't feel like memorizing crap. I didn't want to fill up bluebooks with my newfound knowledge. It hurts your hand to write that much.

Does "selflessness" even exist? It seems that selfishness and altruism come in an inseparable pair, and that even the most selfless acts contain, in themselves, a mode of self-interest.

Consider religion: people doing generous deeds, performing kindhearted, well-intentioned actions - but in the end, these actions are not selfless. On the contrary, they are performed very much so with the self at the center. "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you," reads the Bible (Luke 6:31), for example. Not "do good deeds because it's just the right thing to do," but "hey, you wouldn't like to be treated like that, would you?" Even the foremost document of "selfless" acts contains selfish motives - you want to help people.