Bravo to the Library of Congress for archiving Tweets. All public tweets posted since March 2006 will be preserved by the Library, forever cementing the social media explosion in history. Access to the tweets will have some restrictions, but the content will be archived digitally, allowing the world’s future population to know exactly what information users deemed necessary to spread to the world at any point. There’s only one problem: This archive means Justin Bieber will forever be a trending topic. Bravo to walking for water. This Tuesday, 35 students participated in Be Hope to Her, a campaign to raise awareness about young women in rural African villages who spend hours every day fetching water for their families. The participants walked one mile across the Tempe campus with buckets on their heads, filled them with five gallons at water and carried them back. This event was one of 22 hosted by Nuru International, a humanitarian organization working to eradicate poverty in a sustainable way. Even though ASU is in a desert, we rarely think about how easy it is to get our water. We’re glad students had the opportunity to participate in an event that shows just how difficult basic necessities can be for some people across the globe to obtain.
Boo to the Honors College’s “serial arsonist.” The Barrett Honors complex has recently been harassed by an unknown person or persons disabling and tampering with fire alarms. Despite the perpetrator(s) being dubbed “serial arsonist(s)” there have been no fires. Still, residents have been forced to evacuate during drills in the middle of the night — alarms are annoying in general, but it doesn’t help when you’re in the middle of your REM cycle. The criminal(s) could be in a world of hurt — and not just from the angry pajama-clad students. If caught, they could face five years in prison and have class-two felonies on their records. Our advice: Stop with the pyrotechnics and let people sleep.
Boo to election drama. Downtown campus student leaders have spent the past week and a half squabbling over election results stemming from violations that disqualified the ticket with the most votes. Wanting to appeal the ruling hasn’t been easy — because there is no appeals process on the Downtown campus. The solution has been even more bizarre — letting the default president-elect make the choice. Giving the winning candidate the option to decide if there should be a review of the violations? Yeah, that sounds really fair. Who wouldn’t want to give their opponent (who had more votes) the opportunity to beat them to the position? The Downtown student government needs to get its act together, cut the bickering and create a contingency plan for these types of problems. Bravo to ASU’s latest partnership with Slate Magazine and the New America Foundation. The organizations are working together to look at the effects emerging technologies will have on human life. Their studies will take us beyond the fancy technological bells and whistles and focus on how technological advances will shape public policy, politics and everyday interaction. Not only will the partnership benefit each of the three entities, it is also expected to increase ASU’s recognition in Washington, according to Joel Garreau, a Lincoln Professor of Law, Culture and Values at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. This increase in recognition could open huge doors to ASU, and this partnership is a great effort on the University’s part to become an even bigger player in this country’s future.
