Sports
Column: To the Alligator, the sports department and the readers: thank you
By ALEX MAMINAKIS | Apr. 19, 2016I can’t believe that I’m writing this.
Opinion: Columns
Opinion
Goodbye Column: To my Alligator family and our ramshackle home
Apr. 19, 2016Goodbyes have never been my strong suit.
Opinion
Column: Everything and nothing has changed - reuniting with old friends
Apr. 18, 2016There’s something about the end of the Spring semester that provokes a certain type of introspection. Daily rituals, people and locations take on a deeper meaning as you assess how far you’ve come and where the hell you actually plan on going. It’s a discomforting mixture of nostalgia for another year gone by and the hesitant acknowledgement that time will continue to move at this swift pace. Everything you encounter becomes a symbol of change as friends continue to graduate and you’re left with a completely different Gainesville than the one you first encountered so long ago. In reality, these thoughts are most likely a thinly veiled attempt at procrastination, but that doesn’t make them any less profound.
Opinion
Column: Comedy and jigsaw puzzles leave me in puzzles
Apr. 18, 2016So, it’s my final column of the semester. I’d say it was a pleasure writing for you all, but that’d be a lie. Y’all are kind of pretentious, to be honest. It makes me uncomfortable to be around you.
Opinion
Guest Column: The power of consumerism in animal welfare and social justice
Apr. 18, 2016Animal welfare is an issue often overlooked by a vast majority of people. When consuming animal products, individuals often don’t realize the suffering and pain that results from the industry. As a society, it is important for us to understand the origins of the products we consume and to place economic pressure on companies that exhibit blatant disregard for animal suffering. Together, we have the ability to effect positive change in the industry by manipulating supply and demand, a process that has proven to be tremendously effective thus far. The recent policy shifts of the Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean Cruises are just two examples of the power consumers have to sway the policies of large corporations.
Opinion
Column: Flex Philanthropy food drive - don’t stop there
Apr. 17, 2016Although Wednesday is the last day of classes, it doesn’t seem long ago we were beginning the Fall semester and kicking off the school year. It may be time for students to say goodbye to a lot, but at least there is one thing we can all look forward to leaving behind: on-campus dining.
Opinion
Column: It really is on us — consent and sexual assault
Apr. 17, 2016"Because sex without it isn’t sex.
Opinion
Column: Rising on-campus conservatism - my new optimism
Apr. 17, 2016Picture this: You’re in one of your political science, history or philosophy classes. Things are going well until the professor asks a politically charged question to the class. You know you’re in the extreme ideological minority, because the professor and 98 percent of the class hold the same beliefs.
Opinion
Column: Admitting foolishness is surprisingly adultlike
Apr. 14, 2016I’m starting to believe maturation means admitting how truly childish you are. If there’s any part of life in which maturation occurs the most, it has to be college.
Opinion
Guest Column: It all starts in UF SG - The rotting apples don't fall too far from the trees
Apr. 14, 2016Universities are the breeding grounds of tomorrow. Here, students, faculty and staff alike immerse themselves in a culture that obsesses about our well-being. Universities are consequently a microcosmic nation in themselves, filled with pockets of people and thickets of thinkers, that so directly emulate the world around them. Said plainly: Like apples falling from trees, students don’t fall far from their countries.
Sports
Column: Bruce Arians' comments on CTE in football were insensitive, inaccurate
By Ethan Bauer | Apr. 13, 2016Bruce Arians used to be one of my favorite NFL coaches.
Opinion
Column: ‘Religious liberty’ and the need for dialogue
Apr. 13, 2016These past few weeks have seen an almost unprecedented movement in state governments across the country attacking LGBTQ+ rights in one way or another. The failed Georgia and successfully passed North Carolina and Mississippi religious liberty bills have caused widespread debate and condemnation across the country. It isn’t new; the respective “bathroom” and “wedding cake” wars have been playing out in state and local governments for the past couple years and have been evermore present since the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision last summer.
Opinion
Column: Florida versus Gov. Rick Scott - shouting back
Apr. 13, 2016"Floridians have been encouraged to believe that government could take care of us. But government always takes more than it gives back.” —Rick Scott, in his 2011 State of the State address.
Sports
Column: New generation of athletes bring fresh air to stale sport
By Luis Torres | Apr. 12, 2016Bryce Harper, one of baseball’s great young stars, recently wore a hat that said "Make Baseball Fun Again," playing off Donald Trump’s campaign slogan of "Make America Great Again."
Opinion
Column: My satire fell flat - anybody got a spare?
Apr. 12, 2016Satire’s funny, right? Well, it can be. Cool, let’s talk about that then. Satire provides commentary through irony — sarcasm, in most cases. And, as I’ve spouted at least twice, irony or “subversion of expectation” is the root of all comedy. Saying one thing and meaning another. Presenting one perception and juxtaposing it with the truth. How much more pretentiously can I describe it? There will always be bigger words in the dictionary; you may as well aim low in that regard.
Opinion
Column: 'Deflategate' and draft picks: Football fanaticism can be taken too far
Apr. 12, 2016In a lawsuit filed last Tuesday, a small group of New England Patriots fans — not the same patriots from 250 years ago — demanded the NFL return the Patriots’ first-round draft pick. The draft pick was taken from the team by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell before last season in response to the questionably deflated footballs used by the New England team in the 2015 playoffs.
Opinion
Column: American foreign policy begets further terrorism
Apr. 11, 2016The young couple from Mississippi detained by federal authorities in August has, among other charges, pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support for the Kim Kardashian of radical Islamic militancy: the Islamic State. The aspiring American jihadists shocked and captured the attention of Americans throughout the country.
Opinion
Column: Technology, sex and communication - the modern burden of lightness
Apr. 11, 2016"Everything that is good is light, what is divine runs on delicate feet: first principle of my aesthetic,” declares Nietzsche in “The Case of Wagner.” Paul Valery claims in his notebooks that “(t)he preparation of a work consists of laboriously granting oneself the liberty of executing it lightly.” In his “Six Memos for the New Millennium,” Italo Calvino calls for lightness to combat “the slow petrification” of the world caused by “the inexorable stare of Medusa.”
Opinion
Column: Rick Scott's Gainesville Starbucks altercation is an embarrassment
Apr. 10, 2016If civility isn’t dead in 2016, it’s pretty close to being put in the ground.
Opinion
Column: A few fun facts about insomnia
Apr. 7, 2016Personal health: the news topic that makes readers go, “Oh, I should start paying attention to that soon,” before moving on to read whatever Ann Coulter recently said about Hispanic people. But unlike Ms. Coulter, disregarding uncomfortable health conditions does not make them go away.
