OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: No one is forced to like Shakespeare
Jan. 7, 2016"Nothing is true; everything is permitted.”
Opinion
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: Instagram celebrates superficial lifestyles instead of actual lives
Jan. 7, 2016I don’t have an Instagram. I’d like to pretend it’s because I’m too subversive for social media, but the truth is I’m too lazy for it. After witnessing my friends pour hours into photo capturing and filter selection, I decided it wasn’t worth the effort. Putting on makeup for a first-day-of-school selfie? Please.
OPINION
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DARTS LAURELS
Darts & Laurels 01/08/2016
Jan. 7, 2016As the first week of the new year draws to a close, so too does the first week of Spring semester. As anyone who has ever picked up an Alligator on a Friday could tell you, this means it’s time for the most beloved of traditions, the one thing that keeps the Opinions section sane after a week of depressing headlines and deadlines… Darts & Laurels.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Guest Column: Planning on flying your own drone? Read this before you're cleared for takeoff
Jan. 6, 2016If you’re one of the lucky people who got a drone as a holiday gift, don’t strap on your flying goggles just yet.
OPINION
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EDITORIALS
LCD Soundsystem reunites, we reflect on its influence
Jan. 6, 2016We here in the Opinions corner of the Alligator have a profound respect for music. However, our love for the medium is generally not enough to overcome the realities of a daily student newspaper, where the witty commentary and strong emotions of the lone editorial are generally reserved for that day’s top stories, NOT the passions of music obsessives. So it was to our surprise and excitement that the reformation of LCD Soundsystem not only generated headlines but did so in several prominent publications: Hey, if it’s good enough for Time magazine, the L.A. Times and The Guardian, it’s good enough for us.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: The cultural significance of "Auld Lang Syne"
Jan. 5, 2016"We two have run about the hills
OPINION
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EDITORIALS
Editorial: New year, same gang of American idiots
Jan. 5, 2016The ringing in of the new year brings with it several cherished traditions: the outbreak of mirth, merry, renewed commitments to being a better human being, the joyful return of children and young adults to school… the takeover of a federal wildlife refuge by an armed militia in Oregon? Gadzooks!
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: New year, new column, new books
Jan. 5, 2016Happy January! It’s the beginning of a new year and a new semester. Here’s to saying goodbye to Winter Break, a glorious time of rest, relaxation and stuffing myself with home-cooked food. It was good while it lasted. Does anyone else feel decidedly underprepared for this semester? Coming to school in the fall often feels exciting and full of promise, but the (semi) cold, dreary air of spring has a habit of sucking the enthusiasm for school right out of me. Luckily, there are ways to stay positive about rolling out of bed and trundling to class this week.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Flaky friends and a serious fear of commitment
Jan. 4, 2016As we return from Winter Break, many of us can easily attest to the difficulty of making plans with old and new friends alike. Perhaps the struggle stems from overscheduled lives or your inability to change out of the pajamas you wore for three weeks straight, but you can’t deny that making plans often morphs into a viciously futile cycle of back-and-forth texts that ultimately lead nowhere. Responses like, “Maybe!” and, “I’ll try!” become increasingly prevalent as they incorporate the perfect amount of ambiguity without becoming a full-out “no.” But it wasn’t always this way. So what’s changed?
OPINION
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EDITORIALS
Editorial: New Year's resolutions don't have to have grim prospects
Jan. 4, 2016"New year, new me,” the aphorism goes. Does this mean, “new semester, new Alligator” holds equally true?
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Thank you for the endless supply of anecdotes
Dec. 8, 2015A few weeks ago, I ran into an old classmate from high school.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Goodbye and thanks to the squad I finally found
Dec. 8, 2015If there’s one thing college taught me besides how to be a journalist, it’s that you can’t force friendship.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: Country and football, viewed necessarily in that order
Dec. 8, 2015Let’s go back to Sept. 8, 2011. The U.S. unemployment rate is around 9 percent and President Barack Obama has called a joint session of Congress to address the nation on what the U.S. government is going to do to improve the economy. Millions of Americans at the time were struggling to make ends meet while unemployed, scraping together what they had just to make it by. That night, Obama had the answer to the fear and struggle of many Americans. But this wasn’t the priority for most: That night it was Thursday Night Football.
OPINION
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EDITORIALS
Winter blues and finals make for a depressing combination
Dec. 7, 2015The winter blues, or as they call it in the medicinal biz, "seasonal affective disorder," is a phenomenon that does not distinguish between age, creed or color. Whether you’re killing the proverbial game as an academically exceptional, sexually active frat star or you’re more of the type to quietly mill about one of Gainesville’s many coffee shops and debate whether latter-day Morrissey matches the height of his lyrical prowess during his time with The Smiths (hint: it doesn’t), the slight fluctuation in temperature and ever-subtle changing of leaf color leaves many curled up in bed.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
The end of the semester is a time for reflection
Dec. 7, 2015For the next week, any room with a Wi-Fi connection and four walls will be overrun by over-caffeinated undergrads frantically typing, highlighting or scribbling. Most conversations will be haunted by looming deadlines, libraries will be filled to capacity and everyone in your life will claim to be "burnt out." With the end of the semester comes not only a heightened state of anxiety, but also the opportunity to reflect on any lessons learned in the last four months (and the chance to successfully procrastinate at the same time).
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Guest Column: Undergrads face grad bargaining issues
Dec. 7, 2015In the Alligator’s coverage of UF graduate assistants’ struggle for fair pay, UF Provost Joseph Glover is quoted as saying, "(Graduate Assistants United’s) position is they want a lot of weight for people on the lower end," referring to GAU’s proposal to redistribute student fees. In this model, GAs with the lowest income would pay proportionally less in fees, and GAs with more income would pay proportionally more in fees. According to Glover, this "would be unfair to the people who are working hard, who are at the higher end of the pay scale." Presumably, this means Glover is working extremely hard, since he’s paid over $300,000 a year and doesn’t have to pay fees to work at UF. Plus, there’s his $50,000 raise in 2010. Compare this to the 2-percent raise for GAs currently offered by negotiator Bill Connellan. (In case Connellan doesn’t know, a 2-percent increase in poverty is still poverty.)
OPINION
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EDITORIALS
Editorial: In the wake of Art Basel, the state of art needs to be evaluated
Dec. 6, 2015This past weekend saw the culmination of Art Basel, the weeklong centerpiece to Miami Art Week. All over the city, from Wynwood to South Beach, Miami residents and out-of-towners milled about, hoping to experience as much "culture" (depending on one’s definition of culture) as they could fit into a week.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: Goodbye, Gainesville, and all of its lessons
Dec. 6, 2015Proust once wrote memory isn’t contained within us, but all around us, in the seasons that come and go and remind us the world goes on. And so every winter, I remember the winters previous, going back to the first one when I came to Gainesville, on the edge of beginning my so-called real life.
