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Sunday, May 24, 2026

Opinion

Florida Alligator
Opinion

Measles revived by junk science

Generally, when people think of Disneyland Park, they picture a fantastic time with friends and family. Sure, they may get sick riding around on the Alice In Wonderland teacups, but few expect to get literally sick, especially with the measles. However, that’s exactly what happened to at least 26 people who recently visited the California theme park.


Florida Alligator
Opinion

Craft beer, free speech and astronomical discoveries in this week's Darts & Laurel

Turns out we were lucky that it was just really, really cold last week. This time around, we got a hefty dose of bleak and rainy on top of the frigid air we’ve unfortunately had to get used to. But if Florida really is as weird as everybody else in the country seems to think — see Jon Stewart’s fierce description of us from Tuesday’s “The Daily Show” — it should be unbearably hot and humid soon. To celebrate getting one day closer to that time, here’s your damp-yet-bitterly-cold edition of... 


Florida Alligator
Opinion

Gators, let me be your dirty Dear Abby

I’ve been writing this column for a year now, and I think it’s high time I introduce myself. My name’s Robyn, but I’m also affectionately referred to as “that one girl who writes those sex articles.”


Florida Alligator
Opinion

Vinyl made heroic comeback last year

Vinyl was the laughingstock of the music industry ever since sales of compact discs — CDs — took off in the late 1990s. The digital music format seemed to sound as good, if not better, than its analog counterparts. Tapes sounded terrible, and vinyl records just took up too much damn space. There was no way you were going to fit those things in your car or your Walkman.


Florida Alligator
Opinion

Time to rethink your dream job

I don’t care if you identify primarily as an engineer, artist, janitor, fireman, exotic dancer, librarian, lawyer, CIA agent or whatever your secret dream job may be. I’m going to convince you to start your own company this semester.


Florida Alligator
Opinion

Response to previous letter urging UF to cut ties with anti-Palestinian groups

On the very day that political cartoonists in France were murdered by Islamic radicals simply for exercising their right to freedom of speech, Students for Justice in Palestine member Amanda Nelson wrote an opinion piece urging the boycott of the only free country, according to Freedom House’s rankings, in the Middle East: Israel. Aside from her absolute lack of empirical evidence for any of the allegations she hurls at Israel, she provides no proof whatsoever that boycotting companies such as Elbit Systems or Caterpillar will have any sort of tangible, positive effect on even one Palestinian-Arab. 


Amanda Butler addresses the team during a timeout during Florida's win against Stetson.
Sports

InstaGraham: Butler needs to improve UF’s offense

When I arrived at women’s basketball media day in October, coach Amanda Butler was energetic and enthused about the upcoming season. Despite losing team leader Jaterra Bonds, Butler was eager to tell anyone who would listen that UF would be able to adapt and adjust.


Florida Alligator
Opinion

Don’t pick that Venus flytrap

The nature-walk mantra “take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints” has not only ecological implications but political and legal ones as well.


Florida Alligator
Opinion

Keep Amendment 1 focused on conservation

Many of us may have been disappointed by the results of last fall’s gubernatorial election, but few could complain about the passage of Amendment 1 by an overwhelming 74 percent of voters. 


Florida Alligator
Opinion

Social progress shown through Golden Globes

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had an awesome holiday season. It’s great to be back and great to be writing again, although 2015 somehow already feels stressful. The first week of classes was a blur of expensive textbooks and schedule shuffling, but an event this past weekend helped to start my new year off with a bang: the 2015 Golden Globes.


Florida Alligator
Opinion

The state of the union and security breaches

It’s the week leading up to President Barack Obama’s next-to-last State of the Union Address, so he’ll be revealing his policies for the coming year. It also means there will be a lot of rather sassy reactions to his stated plans, so get ready for a week full of some salty political news. See, for example, the president’s announcement this weekend of the plan to make community college tuition free, and the gleeful takedowns that followed.


Florida Alligator
Opinion

Even offensive speech must be defended

By now, you’ve probably heard of the devastating terror attacks that shocked and horrified the nation of France. The terror began last Wednesday when masked gunmen murdered 12 people at the Paris office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, a publication known for deliberately mocking various religions and politicians. Two days later, the violence continued as the attackers killed a French policewoman then held 16 hostages in a kosher supermarket, killing four.


Florida Alligator
Opinion

Community college plan step in right direction

Good morning, Gators, and welcome back from what we hope was a good weekend. Between the first days of a new semester and the awful things that happened around the world this week, we all needed a break. Now that we’re all back in the groove, let’s start the new week with a controversial yet much less dismal piece of national news: President Barack Obama’s proposal regarding tuition in community colleges.


Florida Alligator
Opinion

NAACP bombing receives disappointing coverage

You know all about the bombing that occurred outside of the Colorado Springs chapter of the NAACP last Tuesday, right? No? Well, the FBI is investigating the act of potential domestic terrorism after a homemade pipe bomb exploded but failed to ignite a 5-gallon gas container to which it was rigged.


Florida Alligator
Opinion

US media has clear selection bias

As an avid consumer of news, I am noticing that the American media is not exactly as objective in their coverage as they should be. Actually, that is an understatement; The mainstream news media seems geared toward a viewpoint that engages in speculation rather than the day’s news.



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