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6B Wednesday, February 23, 2011 The Statement
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Wednesday, February 23, 2011/ The State ent 3B
news in review
Five of the most talked-about stories of the week, ranked in ascending order of actual importance
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the cost of facebook
... _...... _ .
When you're poking friends and tagging photos in
class, you may not be aware of the high price of a
Facebook addiction.
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Public employee union strikes
spread through the state capitols
of Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio on
Tuesday to combat legislation that
threatens collective bargaining
efforts of local goverment
employees.
Somali pirates killed four Ameri-
cans on their yacht Tuesday as
it was passing through Gulf of
Aden in the Indian Ocean, known
as "pirate alley." U.S. naval forces
weren't able to rescue the victims
who were taken hostage on Friday.
ZJ
On Tuesday, a 6.3-magnitude On Tuesday night, Rahm Emanuel, Among several pro-democracy
tremor struck Christchurch, New former congressman and chief protests in the Middle East in
Zealand, leaving an estimated 75 of staff, won the Chicago may- the last week, citizens of Libya
people dead and many more miss- oral race with 55 percent of the revolted against the head of state,
ing. It is New Zealand's first fatal vote. Emanuel will replace Richard Muammar al-Gaddafi. Many
earthquake since 1968 and the Daley, who served as Chicago's believe recent protests in Egypt
country's most fatal since 1931. mayor for 22 years. and Tunisia inspired the event.
L - --____w_- _r7 - - ~_,-----
T urn off FarmVille for a second and
imagine you're sitting in a lecture
hall with 300 students listening
to a professor drone on about particle
physics or "The Canterbury Tales." In
any case, you are bored. However, your
professor allows computers in the class-
room, strictly for note-taking purposes.
Well, what the professor doesn't know
won't hurt him, and laptops aren't trans-
parent. You are free to take notes - or
browse the Internet.
It is almost startling how different a
lecture hall would look from the front
of a room versus standing in the back.
If you stood in the front and looked out,
you may see a large room filled with dili-
gent students furiously clicking away at
their keyboards while taking notes. But
if you run up the stairs and stand at the
very back of the hall you'll see students
scrolling through pictures, commenting
on statuses and poking that cute girl sit-
ting on the other side of the room.
The cult ofFacebook began roughly six
years ago in the dorm room of a Harvard
student in Cambridge, Mass., and now
it's an international phenomenon. What
was once an exclusive Harvard-only sign
of superiority has become the quintes-
sential means of communication world-
wide. During this year's Super Bowl,
almost every advertisement encouraged
viewers to visit their Facebook page,
rather than their company's home page.
The Middle East and North African head
of marketing for Google, Wael Ghonim,
was instrumental in the Egyptian revolt
earlier this month, and was referred to
by Newsweek as the "Facebook Freedom
Fighter" because of his employment of
social networking for political purposes.
Even President Barack Obama's 2008
presidential campaign used Facebook to
reach out to a powerful youthful demo-
graphic.
How much a company produces, its
scope and its efficiency are qualities that
encourage investors to place their faith
and money into a company. It's difficult
to quantify Facebook's progress and
success rates, yet Goldman Sachs found
enough value to invest $1.5 billion in the
company earlier this year, after having
determined the overall value of the site
to be in the $50 billion range.
Users are the blood of Facebook, and
connection is what they strive for. One
of the many things Facebook offers is'
information about other people's lives
at a speed and depth rarely paralleled.
In several interviews with University
students, the impetus to log on was the
same. It's good to connect with friends,
they said.
One of the major sellingpoints of Face-
book is that it's free. The site is so proud
of this fact that it's the first thing you see
on the homepage. Right under the head-
line, "Sign Up," Facebook assures you,
"It's free and always will be."
But as the saying goes: Nothing in this
life is free, especially if you are a student.
According to the University's finan-
cial services, tuition costs $5,824 per
semester for an in-state LSA freshman
and $17,906 for an out-of-state LSA
freshman.
In an average 15-credit schedule, stu-
dents spend roughly $388 per credit.
Divide that by the amount of weeks in
the semester -12 - and you find that
you're spending about $32 for each cred-
it hour or about 50 cents per minute you
sit in class. Triple it if you are an out-of-
state student.
In an online survey of 92 Facebook
users conducted by The Michigan Daily,
71 percent said they go on Facebook
while in class. Sixty-two percent said
they are only on for a few minutes, 10
percent said they are on for half an hour
and 7 percent said they are on Facebook
0,~~ , ,2 , 10
quotes of the week from the archives
'And he's accomplishing something nobody thought A ludicrous line
even possible: He's making Jimmy Carter look like
a Rambo tough-guy."
MICHELLE BACHMANN, U.S. REPRESENTATIVE, criticizing President
Barack Obama's foreign policy at a Tea Party event in South Carolina,
"We don't know whether this is detrimental or
whether it could have some potential beneficial
effects. We don't know one way or the other."
DR. NORA VOLKOW, DIRECTOR OF THE U.S. NATIONAL INSTITUTE
ON DRUG ABUSE, on a recent study showing that cell phone use
increases brain metabolism. FILEPHOTO/ Daily
udacris's antics were indeed ludicrous during his performance at Hill Audito-
rium on Nov. 3, 2005. His graphic and equally offensive words were recanted
the rules in a Michigan Daily article ("Hill 'Acts a Fool' for Ludacris"). Obviously intoxi-
cated during the modification of a closing lyric of his song "Southern Hospitality,"
the famed rapper uttered "U of M girls gimme U of M head." This comment bIas-
No. 317: No. 318: No. 319: phemed the sacred Hill venue as the offensive words bounced off the same walls
Open the flask and Think before you Don't complain that where esteemed legends like the Beach Boys and Bob Dylan sang in previous years.
Despite his outrageous proclamation, Ludacris did bring the noise. The Michigan
start drinking as post those spring your flight south Student Assembly, University chapter of Hillel and the University Activities Com-
soon as your last break photos to isn't until Saturday. mittee hosted the irreverent rap star, and complained that the concerts had a lack
midterm is over. It's Facebook and tag Some of us are of support, since few students bought tickets for the event. A concert in March 2010
proved more successful when MSA, by itself, hosted Wale and The Clipse. These
spring break! sparingly. staying in Michigan. artists did not to talk of their sexual exploits.
by the numbers COURTESY OF THE Bsc
The number of people estimated to be The magnitude of the non-fatgl earth- The average number of annual
missing after Tuesday's deadly earth- quake that struck New Zealand last Sep- earthquakes in New Zealand that are
3 0720quake in New Zealand. tember. greater than 5.0 in magnitude.
t.