THE UNIVERSITY DAILY & GAMES
PAGE 4
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I set my scholarship hall fire alarm off trying to cook something I found on pinterest... other than tasting like shame, it wasn't half bad.
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 6. 2013
Dear "dear hipsters" I hate hipsters too, this coat is just warm.
I don't always ask for my parents permission when I go on disneychannel. com
Lol at the frat guy telling others to be more original. Call me when your frat pack outfits don't all look the same.
If the bus driver nearly runs over several pedestrians, can he be considered a little grumpy?
Every time someone cringes at my grammar I calmly remind myself that I'm a mathematics major. Poor grammar is like a passive ability.
Dear normal people, your north face jackets offend me.
There should be educational videos at orientation on how to wash your hands.
Why do I get so much enjoyment out of watching people try and open the locked doors at camping?
I don't know if anyone still cares, but FALL OUT BOY is back!!!
To the person who likes my sheeclas.
Thanks I stole them from the president.
Biology professor: You ever see a spider on LSD try to make a web? it's not very good.
Really it's okay people, this big table isn't all for me. You can sit with me, good way to meet someone new!
Go home, "Go home, you're drunk" jokes. You're getting old.
Good thing they just "tes the PA syste."
Ask not for whom the steam whistle blows. It blows for thee.
Thank you FFA. The blackboard app is now the best app that I have.
Tú sabes que yo no hablo español!
Editor's note: Parlo Italiano.
iTunes now has a "play it next"
feature. I'm taking full credit. Sincerely
past FFA ranter.
Enough with Dan the bus driver already. Get over it.
Hey boy, ke$ha likes your beard.
You don't need to be original when mocking the Greek system. It mocks itself.
When talking about HP all my friend had to say about it was "meh..." Guess I just lost a friend ...
I feel like my greatest accomplishment so far this semester is that I haven't fallen asleep in class yet.
POLITICS
Just saw a dude wearing Yoga Pants.
Consequences will never be the same.
Obama, senators address immigration
During his speech in Las Vegas on Jan. 28, President Obama said, "It's really important for us to remember history. Unless you're one of the first Americans, a Native American, you came from some place else, somebody brought you."
The point he made came a day after a bipartisan group of senators announced they would be proposing legislation on the immigration issue. Obama cited this fact to highlight the hypocrisy of a nation of immigrants with an "us vs. them" mindset. Immigration reform is a central issue for the Obama administration this term and the president has been adamant that it needs to be done.
The plan Obama outlined, and the senators will try to pass, addresses the 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, as well as an easier path to citizenship for law abiding immigrants. Obama iterated moderate ideas of compromise in his proposal, which brings genuine hope for reform to this controversial problem.
11 million illegal immigrants residing in the United States is evidence enough that need for reform is dire. It also presents a challenge in how to deal with the parties that are living here illegally and have established their livelihood.
It becomes a problem of practicality when enforcing some of the more archaic immigration policy. Obama's proposal would give those people a path to citizenship but not without consequence. They would have to pay a fine and would go to "the back of the line, which is only fair," Obama said.
To make that work, they are given temporary "amnesty" from illegal status and hopefully give people living in the states illegally the opportunity to assimilate as
they have never been capable of before.
"Critics will excoriate this 'amnesty' as capitulating to criminals, but it is far better than forcing generally law-abiding people to live in a persistent and incurable state of lawlessness," wrote the Economist.
The path to citizenship is preferable to deportation not only for illegal immigrants but also to the larger population, which is why this reform is so vital.
"Everybody knows that America's immigration system is a mess. It turns away too many
useful people," continued the Economist. "And it also leaves 11 million people ... who have often worked in America for years yet fear the knock on the door... to live within its borders but in the shadows."
Reform would allow those already illegally residing in the U.S. to come out of the shadows, contribute to society, participate in democracy, and legally pay all of their taxes. It would also become easier for skilled laborers, often times students educated in the U.S., to immigrate here more easily instead of being turned away and to let us reap the benefits of their production.
This pragmatic solution will most likely encounter its biggest roadblock in the GOP members of the House of Representatives. However basic republican principles, pro-business and free trade, are somewhat contradicted by an anti-immigration line. Obama's proposal in this case is a more
free market friendly approach toward the labor market.
This legislation has the possibility to pass at this point and will be especially crucial because of the changing demographics and voter groups. The Republican Party now must be faced with entertaining the ideas of their base as well as staying competitive in general elections. The Hispanic and immigrant population is growing and the GOP received only 27 percent of the Hispanic population vote in the last election.
BRAIN DRAIN
The changing fundamentals of the United States only make it more critical that immigration issues are addressed.
Cosby is a sophomore majoring in economics and political science from Overland Park. Follow him on Twitter @claycosby.
Be ready for the expiration date of your college degree
Your college degree will expire. Just like every bit of knowledge we have
of knowledge we have now, most of what you learn in college will likely not be true someday in your lifetime.
Degrees are not a guaranteed ticket to the job market anymore, and the basic structure of modern day higher education does not look like the best solution for the kind of world we live in. This is not a small issue, especially for us college students, making a huge time and money investment.
Fortunately, there is a solution to it. And it all starts with actually understanding the problem.
Sam Arbesman, Kauffman Foundation scholar and Harvard mathematician, explains the science behind this issue in his book, "The Half-Life of Facts." Using "scientometrics" (the science that measures science) he demonstrates how knowledge decays, and how nearly everything we know will simply not be true someday. And that ranges from all we watch on TV to every single fact we learned to take our last finals.
The solutions for the problem vary, and some seem more extreme than others. One of them, as proposed by the PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, is to drop out of college altogether.
He supports this with his Thiel Fellowship, which recruits students under the age of 20 to drop out of college to pursue other projects. Each student gets a $100,000 funding to work on whatever their passion is, which could include social movements, startup creation, or scientific research.
Although dropping out might be tempting to some of us, I understand it seems (and might actually be) very risky. Besides, your mom might not be very thrilled about it. I know mine didn't when I brought that up. But we can benefit from understanding why dropping out works for some people, and apply it to our lives even without quitting college altogether.
The solution is proposed by Sam Arbesman. It involves adopting a more flexible approach to learning, rather than treat formal education like we used to: a one-and-done deal. He shows in his book that to understand the decay of knowledge is to become more prepared to deal with it.
Personal approaches to it will vary. Dale Stephens, Thiel Fellowship member and founder of UnCollege.org, suggests a wonderful starting point: asking ourselves who we are, what we love doing, and where are we going. Although I did not drop out of college like Stephens, my own answers to these questions made me go for a flexible approach to learning. They made me experiment working and studying in different countries, trying my hands on a couple of startups, and even helped me find a job working in the same place as Sam Arbesman, the very cool mathematician who inspired this column.
Despite some of the problems pointed by many, college is still an awesome learning environment. It is true; degrees are far off from their previous promise of knowledge we needed to know from graduation and further on. But if we take a flexible approach to learning, and tame our school coursework to save time, college can still be a great bridge to a wonderful wealth of knowledge.
Morelix is a junior majoring in business and economics from Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
PERSONAL GROWTH
CAMPUS CHIRPS BACK
Stop following, become a leader
Do you consider yourself an independent individual? Do you take responsibility for your actions?
Some people say being a follower will better prepare you for the real world because you are supposed to do what you are told. But I say being a leader is what will make this world a better place.
A lot of people nowadays are content with following the leader. They are happy with hiding in the back of the class, jumping on the bandwagon, or doing what's "cool" at the time. Don't let that be you.
I know I am not the most credible person, but I used to be one of those people. I used to be shy and sit in the back of the class, and I used to do whatever my friends did, whether that was a good decision or not. Ever since I came to college in 2010 I decided to take the initiative to become more of a leader. And now I am 21 years old and I consider myself a leader rather than a follower in situations that allow me to be. I understand a person cannot be a leader in every situation.
For example, being a follower in the workplace is fine. Not everyone can lead in a situation like that. Follow your instructions and get the job done. Eventually the hard work will pay off and you will hopefully have the opportunity to become the leader of the workplace through promotions.
I am talking about being a leader in your own sense. Always take lead of your own life and actions. Make your own rules and choices; don't let others make them for you by being a follower. By making your own
Believe me when I say this:
Being a leader of your own life will benefit you more than being a follower. We all have what it takes to be a good leader in our own sense, so brave up and next time you catch yourself sitting in the back of the classroom, get up and move closer to the front. You will thank yourself in the future.
Take charge, make smart decisions and don't let the decisions of your friends influence yours. Be independent. Don't let others hold you back, and do what it takes to take charge of yourself. And then maybe you will begin to see your friends and others follow your lead.
I understand it is a lot easier said than done. But we can be a leader and take charge of our own lives. And we should. Because we are all college students, we are making decisions that will possibly affect the rest of our lives, and learning to take charge should be near the top of the list.
Carroll is a junior majoring in English from Salem, Conn. Follow him on Twitter @BCarroll91.
choices in life, you become the leader of your own situation. Listening to advice from others is always a good idea, but you don't have to put all advice into action. Be the one to decide which advice to use.
@osborn_2009
@UOK_Opinan whatever they look in works for me.
@Elliot_Henry
@UDOK_Opinion #teamnopants
@UOK. Opinion yogas have more variety; people are wrong if they wear leggings as actual pants and don't cover their bum.
@maddienave
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@UDK_Opinion I don't care what you think, leggings are pants too.
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