Maybe you’ve noticed that the economy kinda sucks. Companies can’t afford to hire anyone so more and more they’re turning to the old standby: the unpaid internship. And when you think about it, everybody wins — all you have to do is make copies to get a big name company on your resume, and that big name company doesn’t have to pay someone to, well, make copies. Since the job market is so awful more people than usual are fighting for the coveted bitch-boy/girl spots.
For a cool 8 or 9 grand, you’ll get “guaranteed internship placement, housing, meal plan, 6 planned weekend activities to the best tourist attractions in the area, a weekly seminar series, and daily transportation to and from work.”
We think the whole thing undermines the spirit of the internship process. Plus we can’t afford it.
The walk to 40th & Market may be getting a lot friendlier. According to an article on PhillyBurbs.com, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is spending $173,000 to teach employees at the state-run liquor stores some manners.
“The point is to become a specialty retailer and not be known as a government monopoly,” said Joe Conti, PLCB head honcho.
We don’t know about you, but we liked them better when they were rude and didn’t card. It’s just adding insult to injury to take someone’s fake with a “Thank you, come again.”
Somebody on the board of trustees must be in bed with the Cipro manufacturer because Penn just can’t seem to escape the little bugger. After last month’s mini-outbreak, the University just sent out an email that another undergrad has been hospitalized with a suspected case of meningitis. While this case seems to be isolated from the Valentine’s weekend episode, SHS is still offering treatment for any students who are interested and will be open again tomorrow, March 8 from 12pm-3pm.
"Ever since I can remember I been poppin' my collar."
Arthur Kade will be the first to tell you that Arthur Kade is the man. And that’s not all the Northeast Philly financial planner turned actor/model will tell you on his totally awesome and sweet blog. Now, we’re all for the “follow your dreams” philosophy, that is, unless your dream is to be a total schmuck like this guy.
Cutting through the awkward syntax and shoddy grammar, readers will get to what AK has come to appreciate most, “the memories and people that have made my adult life special so far.” Which in his case means regaling us with tales of his club adventures with sidekick “Radio Girl” (moronic pet names being a prerequisite for professional douches, of course) and the trials and tribulations of being an aspiring not-really-young model with greasy hair. Read the rest of this entry »
CalTech grad student Virgil Griffith has taken two of Penn kids’ favorite things to brag about — intelligence and taste in music — and put our boasts to the test. In another example of Facebook exploitation, Griffith compared the incidence of artists in students’ profiles with the average SAT scores of their respective institutions of higher education. In his own words, “Their unity is hilarity incarnate.”
Not-so-surprisingly, Beethoven fans are on top of their studies, pulling in an average score of 1371. Lil’ Wayne fans on the other hand, seem to be too busy pondering just what exactly a goon is to a goblin to hit up their Princeton Review courses, averaging an 889. It’s unclear whether listening to everything at once makes you a genius or a complete idiot. Fingers crossed, Girl Talk fans.
Other notables: John Legend writes smarter songs than Justin Timberlake; Sufjan Stevens only got a high score because dumb kids can’t pronounce his name; and unless you aspire to a life of devastating mediocrity, stop listening to Dave Matthews.
Griffith has kicked out a similar list for books, and while the site is currently down, you can still peep the chart here. Word of advice: go Fahrenheit 451 on anything that’s been made into a movie and pick up some Nabakov. You’ll thank us later.
Take a look-see and decide if you need to update your profile so we don’t judge you.
If you’re anything like me, you haven’t paid too much attention to the current economic imbroglio. You don’t really understand it — you know it’s bad, yet you can’t help saying to yourself: “But they had so much money!”
Jarvis makes “playing hot potato with a time bomb” easy to grasp even for English majors like myself, and at times the animation makes you want to chuckle. Then, like myself, you will realize you might never have a job and begin the frowning of a lifetime.
Big ups to the university for trying to go green and switching to all biodegradable containers in the dining facilities. But the eco-friendly campaign is kind of like Communism: great in theory, epic fail in practice. At Houston Market, Penn’s see-and-be-seen lunch spot, the Playskool-esque blue receptacles resemble a child’s toy with their triangular, circular and square holes. Only problem is, those boxes they serve your food in don’t fit into any of them. Whoops.
We’ve already told you: Don’t read Under The Button. Just don’t do it. Obviously you didn’t listen. Maybe your Google Fu is weak and you don’t know any other blogs; maybe you have a crush on one of us and hang on our every digital word. There is a big blogosphere beyond UTB; the hard part is figuring out where to go from here. (Is that a sign that the internet is broken?) Lucky for you, TIME.com has released their First Annual Blog Index.
TIME also provides a list of the 5 Most Overrated Blogs. Sorry, LOLcats, U haz loozed ninfh livez.
Their web design team should be fired for making the page such a pain to navigate, but browse the lists, throw some RSS feeds in your Google Reader and put your finger to the digital pulse of the Interweb. We won’t get jealous. We know we’re still your favez.
I made a Twitter account early last year. I do this sort of thing a lot — I hear about some new web 2.0 jumpoff through any of the variegated remnants of my computernerd past, sign up, poke around a bit, then forget all about it.
But as the “[insert name] is now following you on Twitter!” emails turned from a trickle to a torrent, not to mention the mainstream media coverage, it’s clear that tweeting is no longer just for birds, and we just have to get used to the idea of chopping our lives into easy-to-swallow 140-character pieces.
It all came to a head when a good friend of mine signed up this weekend and started following me. I thought, “Here’s someone who I may actually care about following,” and turned on my mobile updates. Bad choice.
Within the first two hours I had received at least seven updates, half of which were in French, the only positive result being my adoption of the tres chic version of FML. Apparently, life really sucks when you’re French.
In any case, the experience made me realize that we could all be a little more considerate in our use of the Twittermonster. (Now, I’m no Twitter power-user. I use it as a notebook when I don’t have pen and paper on hand. Don’t follow me. I’m boring.) And so, here is my lesson in “Twit-equitte”:
Penn kids are very smart. Which means they are inherently socially inept, especially when it comes to dealing with members of the opposite sex. But fear not — I’m looking out for you, so on this Valentine’s Day you can pull off some fairly normal human interaction. Or at least fake it really really well.
First off: do you have a date? If so, you’re more than halfway there. If you buy someone dinner they’re obligated to put out and vice versa. But if its the first time you’re touching a living thing since that Bio dissection you did last semester, you’re going to need a little guidance. The “base system” from the days of yore still applies, albeit with some additional nuances. The folks over at xkcd were kind enough to diagram it for y’all. Read the rest of this entry »
Maybe you’ve noticed that the economy kinda sucks. Companies can’t afford to hire anyone so more and more they’re turning to the old standby: the unpaid internship. And when you think about it, everybody wins — all you have to do is make copies to get a big name company on your resume, and that big name company doesn’t have to pay someone to, well, make copies. Since the job market is so awful more people than usual are fighting for the coveted bitch-boy/girl spots.
Somebody on the board of trustees must be in bed with the Cipro manufacturer because Penn just can’t seem to escape the little bugger. After last month’s 
CalTech grad student 
Penn kids are very smart. Which means they are inherently socially inept, especially when it comes to dealing with members of the opposite sex. But fear not — I’m looking out for you, so on this Valentine’s Day you can pull off some fairly normal human interaction. Or at least fake it really really well.