Singapore is a country many of you have probably heard of, possibly as the current home of Eduardo Saverin, or for their authoritarian laws. However, the centralized authoritarian government has also taken many impressive steps towards turning Singapore into a sustainable city, steps that could only be taken because of the nature of the government.
Tag Archives: learn something
Learn something! Articles that are informative about something techy or random.
Kennedy vs. Bielat for CD4
On October 15th, the two candidates for the 4th Congressional District in Massachusetts, Joe Kennedy (Democrat) and Sean Bielat (Republican), debated at Wellesley College. Olin is in the 4th Congressional District, and is currently represented by Barney Frank. At the end of this congressional session, he is retiring, in part because the district was redrawn after the 2010 census and now includes more conservative areas
Despite the saying that “all politics is local”, many of the issues touched on in the debate were of national significance. Both candidates reflected their party’s orthodoxy, though Bielat broke from his party in three ways: supporting certain military budget cuts, believing legislative authorization is necessary to use military force, and acknowledging that the EPA has a role in protecting the environment.
Living a Life Without Love
We all are familiar the different types of “love”: platonic, heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual, pansexual, etc. But many often exclude the possibility that being aromantic or asexual is one of them.
Love is everywhere. You grow up with it on television. You read about it in books. You start dreaming about it sometime in puberty. You hear about it every single day of your life. People who lack that desire are depicted as twisted or deprived: they’re either the villains bent on world destruction (like He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named) or someone who has not yet met that special someone (like Batman before Catwoman). People seem to forget that there ARE people in this world who have no desire to experience the “joys” of a relationship.
I am one of them.
Become an Informed Voter
So, you want to vote this November, but aren’t sure who to vote for? Here’s a guide to the positions each of the major candidates has taken on most of the important issues.
Two disclaimers: These positions are taken from the candidates’ websites, and while there are other candidates, these are the important ones.
Do Something: Register to Vote
Hey, you. Yeah, you, with the U.S. citizenship. I heard you’re over 18. Have you registered to vote yet? No? Why not?
UX Means Love at First Run
My girlfriend, a Peace and Justice major at Wellesley, knows the basics of coding and piloting an aircraft, though her course of study does not teach the procedural skills for either.
Not only did she pick up coding and flying quickly, she was captivated by them. This was thanks to the great First Run Experiences of Codecademy.com and Microsoft Flight, which both serve the purpose of teaching regular people very technical skills.
April Fish
Although April Fools’ day is not an official holiday, that doesn’t stop it from being celebrated all over the world. Here in America, it is a day for pulling pranks, both elaborate and simple, on friends and enemies, but other parts of the world have twists on the tradition.
In other countries, according to april-fools.us, the April Fools’ Day takes on different twists and traditions.
In Scotland, April Fools’ Day is known as Taily Day and it is dedicated to “spoofs involving the buttocks.”
In some places, like England, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, it is considered bad luck to play pranks after noon, so all the jokes are pulled early in the day. Some newspapers in these places even have a morning “joke” edition and a serious edition that comes out in the afternoon.
In France, Italy and French Canada, along with other pranks, it is tradition to try to affix a paper fish to people without them noticing, making them “April fish.” The term also refers to the recipient of other pranks played on that day.
So where did these silly traditions come from?
While it is uncertain, they may have originated around 1582 when the Gregorian calendar was introduced and the start of the new year was moved from the week of March 25th-April 1st to January 1st.
Some people who were reluctant to follow the new calendar and were thought “foolish” by the rest of society. They often had practical jokes played on them, such as being sent on silly or impossible errands or being invited to fake parties.
People who fell for these tricks were labeled “poisson d’avril” or “April fish” because a “young, naïve fish is easily caught” which is where the tradition of the attaching a paper fish is thought to have come from.
People around carry on the tradition of elaborate pranks and silly jokes on the unwary today- so watch your back, or you might find yourself an unwitting April fish!