The Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife) announced earlier this month that it would be offering gender-neutral housing in certain dormitories. The option will be available by application to sophomores, juniors and seniors and will be restricted to the Latin Way suites and the Bush Hall double bedrooms.
This Sunday at 7 p.m. on ABC, Billy Crystal will host the 84th Annual Academy Awards, doling out those illustrious gilded men to the most deserving players in Hollywood from the past year. To preview the ceremony, the Daily will take you through the six main categories (Best Supporting Actress and Actor, Best Actress and Actor, Best Director and Best Picture), enumerating the favorite frontrunners and the reprehensible snubs along the way. So, grab some popcorn and get prepared for the drawn out speeches and, if we're lucky, some wild waterworks. It's Oscar time!Best Supporting Actress
It's been quite a warm winter. So warm in fact, that it reached almost 60 degrees in my hometown of Chicago in the middle of January. While this has much more to do with the temperature variability caused by the cycles of El Niño and La Niña than global warming per se, the lesson to be drawn is that 2012 can only mark the initial stages of our foray into the erratic weather patterns humanity will be forced to contend with in the century to come.
What if the government could read your mind? If they choose to utilize recent research from the field of neuroscience, they already can — several recent studies have used computing power to match brain scan patterns with what a person thinks and feels, effectively reading their mind.
You are walking through a rather sparsely populated, fast−moving street. A few hundred yards away, you see a man being beaten by a couple thugs wearing inconspicuous track jackets. He is then loaded into the back of a van that drives away almost immediately. No one stops, stares or questions what's going on. After all, there is a law against loitering in a location for too long, as well as one against congregating in groups of more than a few people. You stop for a few moments, but some burly man wearing a suit and speaking Russian pushes you along, muttering something along the lines of "Keep moving or you'll be in the same situation." There are occasional posters of the autocratic leader who has firmly held onto power with help from the KGB secret police.
The Medford city council recently began considering a move to make liquor licenses more widely available to restaurants in the city. Liquor licenses come in two varieties: a license to serve beer and wine and a license to serve hard liquor or cocktails in addition to the lighter beverages. The requirement for the beer and wine license is a reasonable 19 or more seats, but for a full liquor license the requirement is much higher — a capacity of at least 99.
The Obama administration recently unveiled tweaks to rules for health insurance that would have compelled church−affiliated organizations to cover contraceptives for female employees under the insurance progams they provide. These provisions enraged many Catholics. The updated rule would not have applied to people who work directly for the Catholic Church, but it would have extended to affiliated organizations owned by the Church, such as Catholic hospitals and universities. Due to the extensive uproar that this policy provoked, the administration has since backtracked, instead placing the burden of financing contraception on insurance companies.
Unique drinking laws for universities. How attractive it seems, the opportunity to drink legally while polishing that paper or arguing with a fellow student about how to save the world! Yet not only do I consider this to be an ineffective idea, I think it's entirely counterproductive to the American idea — universal freedom — that it is intended to further.
Apple shares climbed above $500 on Monday, clearly to the delight of shareholders and the Apple faithful. The company, valued at more than $460 billion, is the most valuable in the world and worth more than rivals Google and Microsoft combined. While this is good news for Apple, it's unlikely that this news will mean much to many individuals whose hard work contributes to the success of Apple products — the Chinese factory workers assembling the gadgets "Designed by Apple in California."
When you think of movie musicals, a host of people come to mind: Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Liza Minnelli and Julie Andrews, just to name a few. This last individual arguably did more for the musical than any other movie star. Really, who hasn't seen her sing of hills that are alive with the sound of music? What child didn't want the loveable, quirky Ms. Poppins to come knock on their door? Her career was unique in this way; she chose a wide array of work to produce. But Andrews is the poster child of a generation of film stars whose mark is sadly missing from film today.
Here are some qualifications for a potential job that I think I might be able to meet: smile that lights up a room, referred to as the life of the party, ability to fake tears, busty body type (Oh, wait.). Before you scream about discrimination in hiring practices, this listing is for a stand−in bridesmaid, listed as one of CareerBuilder.com's most unusual jobs in a survey. Those specifications were taken from an actual ad, which humorously specified that the following people need not apply: WWE wrestlers, home wreckers and MILFs.
President Obama unveiled a plan last week to make government "scorecards" for every college in the country. The initiative aims to deliver on a promise Obama made in his State of the Union address to make higher education more affordable for American families.
At the end of January, two documents were released by the Pentagon: "Defense Budget Priorities and Choices" and "Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for the 21st Century Defense." Together, these documents propose radical changes to the posture and size of the U.S. military. With an epicenter at the Pentagon, these documents have created rumblings that reach from the Senate Armed Forces Committee all the way to the Ministry of National Defense in China.
Today, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to approve the plans of Southern Company, allowing for the construction of two new nuclear reactors at the Plant Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia. This would mark the first American approval of a nuclear reactor since 1978, a year before the Three Mile Island meltdown in Pennsylvania. The Georgia plant currently houses two nuclear reactors and the plans would double its operation with the addition of two more, both of which would be state of the art.
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