Fellow Gators and football fans, we need to sit down and have a chat about your behavior over this weekend. A state of emergency was declared over our great state as Hurricane Matthew wreaked havoc in the Caribbean and our east coast. As of press time, 902 people have perished in the wake of this catastrophic storm.
With the impact of Hurricane Matthew becoming clearer each day, it’s evident Florida was spared the worst of it. It devastated Haiti. While students at UF hoped for the hurricane to cancel class and delay their exams, Haiti was washed out by the hurricane.
It’s mystical. It’s magical. No, it’s not a super rare Pokemon — it’s Gatorship.
Time. What a word. Loved and hated, used as an excuse and seen as a vice. Time is difficult to fully understand. How often do we say we wish we could alter time? We make mistakes, and we wish we could go back and stop ourselves from doing so. We have something exciting coming up, and we wish we could skip everything from now until then. Why do we do this? Why can’t we just enjoy the present? Well, dear readers, probably because the present is not all that pleasant most of the time.
We all know the Florida football game this Saturday was postponed because of Hurricane Matthew.
You’re at a concert, standing with some friends in the pit. “Hello Gainesville!” shouts the lead singer to his adoring fans. You start singing along to the lyrics of their No.1 song, but something’s off. The singer’s lips are moving to the actual lyrics, but all you hear through the microphone is “Darts and Laurels, Darts and Laurels.” You look to your friend to see what’s up. But instead of your friend, it’s one of those creepy clowns. It tilts its head, looks into your soul and whispers, “What, don’t you love this song?”
I recently saw an argument unfold on one of my friend’s Facebook statuses. The post was a combination of two images: one of a forest with writing that said, “This is an antidepressant.” The second image was of several pill packages that implied prescribed antidepressants, with writing stating the vulgar equivalent of, “This is garbage.”
Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, Coachella: The names sound like exotic, tribal get-togethers deep in a rainforest and, frankly, that description is not far off.
Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which would allow families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia for its alleged complicity in the terrorist attacks. President Barack Obama vetoed the bill, arguing it would not only undermine strong diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, but it would also weaken the long-standing tradition of sovereign immunity: the legal doctrine that no foreign nation can be held responsible from civil suit of prosecution. However, the veto was overridden by an overwhelming margin — 97-1 in the Senate and 348-77 in the House.
I’m going to come out and admit something I usually only share with close friends: I role-play online. Now before you start thinking I spend time on Neopets forums, let me briefly explain the type of role-playing I do. I role-play through Tumblr. Each character I play has a different blog, and I’m part of a larger group in which each person has a handful of characters with their own blogs. When it comes to actually role-playing, it goes like this: I write a scene through my character’s perspective, then whoever I am role-playing with writes the same scene through their character’s point of view and advances it. This keeps on going until the thread finishes.
Late Monday night, an angry mob assembled on the streets of Pennsylvania State University.
Popular culture shapes a lot of the comedy around us, obviously. Plenty of TV shows make references to current events, and plenty more harken to other decades to appeal to an older crowd. Weekly shows like “Saturday Night Live” thrive off of popular culture; it’s a show that’s stayed relevant for more than 40 years by doing so. Period pieces take the culture of a past era and convey that era to a modern audience.
It was astonishing, the vice presidential debate between Tim Kaine and Mike Pence. It looked oddly familiar. It looked nothing like the debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump a few weeks ago. No, this debate was full of substance, political theory and, for the most part, well-developed arguments. Kaine and Pence got on that stage and actually looked like what two respectable candidates ought to. It seems the debate we watched Tuesday is the debate we had traditionally been watching. For once, we felt nostalgic.
Full disclosure: I’m a Miami Heat fan.
Many students at UF have taken statistics classes at some point in their lives. Whether they came to UF with AP Statistics credits in their back pockets or took Introduction to Statistics 1 here, it’s comforting to know that those in our campus environment acknowledge and respect statistical truth, even if, by taking those classes, they understand how easily manipulated statistics can be. Regardless, the website FiveThirtyEight, created by statistical superstar Nate Silver, published an article yesterday with a gripping headline: “People Who Oppose Gay Marriage Are Less Likely To Value Expert Opinion.”
I was a freshman and walking to my first-ever college party. It was 9 p.m., and I approached the apartment complex slowly. I stuck my hand into the pocket of my dark-green army jacket and fiddled with the half-filled pack of Marlboro Lights with two joints pushed to the corners. I figured I should bring something to be polite, but I had no way of obtaining a bottle of wine or a six-pack of beer.
This past week I had some free time and enjoyed watching TV. I have been paying more attention to the new commercials and publicity displayed in the media.
As students, learning is not only done in the classroom through courses by professors, but also in extracurricular activities. A conference, for instance, might give students new insights, too. In a typical class, achieving the best academic performance is the largest goal for every student, accomplished by completing assignments, class participation, discussion and exams.
Fads come and go. In 2016, some of the best moments can be had sitting on the Plaza of the Americas, watching people as they stroll all the way from Anderson Hall to Turlington Plaza, selfie stick in hand, to document this fascinating migration. Fitbits must always be on, because how else would people keep track of how many calories they burned playing “Pokemon Go”? Why not let everyone know what you just did by sending them a Snapchat with that puppy-dog face?
Hey, Gators!
Solutions by The State News
