A few weeks ago the Obama administration announced that they had rejected a previous agreement to begin work on the Keystone Pipeline project. The project was to run from Northeast Canada to Texas and through a number of refineries along the way. Because of threats from the powerful environmentalist lobby as well as tree huggers at the Sierra Club...
An eye-catching editorial in a recent issue of PLUS Model Magazine has started quite the buzz. It features implied nude photos of plus-size model Katya Zharkova with captions that reflect on the unrealistic beauty standards currently set by the modeling industry. While the intention of promoting body diversity in models is a good one, misleading statistics and questionable claims...
To begin, the Fix UC proposal isn't trivial in the least. Eventually levying 5 percent of graduates' income for two decades of employment—this idea would fundamentally change what higher education represents to students of the UC and Californians alike. On paper, the proposal, if implemented, would effectively reduce state contributions to the UC system in favor of funding from...
UC President Mark G. Yudof has directed all 10 UC Chancellors to form committees for the purpose of making the UCs smoke-free campuses within the next 24 months. His directive is aimed at removing all sales and advertising of tobacco products from every UC campus, including parking lots, outdoor parks, recreational areas and private residential space.
Except in the minds...
Last week, UCR played host to the University of California’s first major student protest since peaceful activists at Davis were pepper sprayed by UC police in November. Many hoped that the demonstrations, which took place in conjunction with the regents meeting, would show that students were not afraid and that they would continue to stand in peaceful solidarity against...
In response to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Congress and then President George W. Bush crafted a bill that any sensible critic would’ve called an abomination. A blatant power grab by the government, the PATRIOT Act dramatically redefined what was considered private in the US. The bill, riddled with bureaucratic double-speak, sought to expand the ways in which...
Iran has been the proverbial thorn in the side of the US ever since the fall of the shah, but the current cold war between the US and Iran could send a world teetering on the edge of a second global recession right over the cliff.
The current crisis revolves around the Strait of Hormuz, a pivotal sea passage through...
Recently, President Obama declared an end to the Iraq War—a war that claimed the lives of approximately 4,500 Americans and more than 100,000 Iraqis (mostly citizens), costing taxpayers an estimated $800 billion. But the cost and casualties of the war continue to mount both at home and abroad. We continue to pay for President Bush’s search for weapons of...
There is growing concern among many in the online community that the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a US bill that would give the government power to block websites that violate copyright laws, is inspiring more than just contempt among the sites that stand to lose the most from it.
The social news site Reddit is spearheading a protest of...
In Dr. Suess’ classic story, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” the grouchy green Grinch living on Mount Crumpit gets so weary of Christmas music from the nearby town of Whoville that he goes down and steals all the Christmas presents and decorations! This places the Grinch as one of the ultimate villains of childhood storybooks. But what if the...