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Tuesday, May 20, 2025

El Caimán

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Comedy and world-building: ‘Homestar Runner’

Sep. 26, 2016

The internet has done weird things for comedy. Good things, but certainly weird things. Video-sharing websites like YouTube, Newgrounds and Vine have paved the way for all sorts of art: mediums like sketches, animations and music. The internet digitized the formerly newspaper-dominated comic strip with works like “Penny Arcade” and “xkcd.” And beyond this, the eldritch phenomenon that is memes has introduced audiences to meta-humor and explored the darker side of the human psyche. Memes are spooky stuff.

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

Another semester, another endorsement

Sep. 26, 2016

It’s that time of year again — Student Government elections. The last few years, dear reader, have been as tumultuous as ever. The drama surrounding various party name changes, accusations of nepotism, mudslinging and the seemingly valid conspiracy theories seems to never end, and even as we put the finishing touches on this endorsement editorial, the Not My System movement is preparing a livestream for a Q&A.

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Student, sometimes customer: When is education a business transaction?

Sep. 26, 2016

Whether it was due to a class discussion on the “student as customer” debate or a fellow columnist’s musings on Rate My Professors or simply my own preoccupation with funding graduate school, my mind keeps coming back to the ways in which higher education and the market economy intersect. Over the past few years, higher education has been increasingly characterized as a business transaction in which the student is the customer “purchasing” a degree and entrance into the job market. It seems innocuous enough, treating college students as valued customers, but despite the increased bargaining power this conceptual shift gives us, it undeniably warps the way we approach our education.

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

The only world that exists: Some thoughts on technology, the need to unplug

Sep. 26, 2016

Last week, in the middle of my creative writing class, my teacher stepped out to use the bathroom during our 10-minute break. This is usually a good time to crack light jokes with your neighbor or try and make small talk. Instead, every person except me and another guy was on his or her phone. The only reason I wasn’t looking down at mine was because it was plugged into the wall, charging. There was total silence in the room; nobody even glanced up or attempted to connect with another human being. And then our teacher walked back in and we resumed class. Is this just a minute instance of a current phenomenon I plan on stretching out of proportion? Possibly.

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Regarding John Jones’ letter to the editor

Sep. 25, 2016

UF business student John Jones misrepresents both the email sent by David Parrott and the overall situation in this country to which the email pertains. Nowhere in Parrott’s email does he imply violence is only committed against African-Americans. He mentions several recent tragedies in which black people were killed by the police in order to promote an event on the subject. Just because a specific type of violence is mentioned in a short email does not mean the sender is implying no other types of violence exist.

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