0 0 0 0 6B Wednesday, February 23, 2011 The Statement facebook Search 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 News Feed By Jordan Rochelson News Feed Messages Events Friends More You are currently offine. To chat with your friends, go online Tops News Most Recent Share: Status Photo ULink ,AVideo 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. 10 hours ago " Comment" Like 123 people like this. ~Write a comment... 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.