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Views on the News: Texas History Changes

Editorial: Yom Kippur Break Fast

Community members gathered on the Great Lawn on Wednesday night for the annual Break Fast — known as “Break the Fast” in the past — where the University provided free food and drinks. As in previous years, people who had not fasted for Yom Kippur were invited as well, but this year, the event started earlier, around the time that the fast ended. This led to long lines and limited seating, as fasting students arrived around the same time as non-fasting students. This board urges the University to assess this year’s event and take steps to ensure that, in the future, the entire Brandeis community can participate in Break Fast without inconveniencing students who have been fasting for 25 hours.

Carefully analyze how Kavanaugh situation unravels

In last week’s Forum piece, “The Stakes of Brett Kavanaugh’s SCOTUS Nomination,” writer Violet Fearon noted that Democrats’ chances of blocking the nomination were slim. The judge answered all of the questions capably, seemed eminently qualified, and with a Republican voting majority in the Senate, his nomination to the highest judicial body in the land appeared to be a foregone conclusion. That calculus was radically disrupted last week when Christine Blasey Ford, a California college professor, publicly stated that the then-17-year-old Kavanaugh had attempted to rape her at a Maryland house party. By Ford’s account, the future judge locked her in a bedroom, jumped on top of her and tried to take her clothes off, although she was able to escape. The facts surrounding this story are still being established, and new details and developments seem to pop up every day. 

Vaping could put teens on a path to lifelong addiction

One of the most annoying trends to reach adolescents within the past few years is vaping. Not only do users not realize that they look utterly obnoxious blowing smoke clouds everywhere, but also, they may not know that they are inevitably contributing to a nicotine addiction. Most e-cigarettes or vape products contain an oil form of nicotine that is vaporized when heated. Take Juul Labs, the makers of the ubiquitous USB-shaped device of the same name, for example. Their website states that products come in two varieties that have either three or five percent nicotine by weight. That translates to about 23 and 40 mg, respectively, of nicotine per pod. According to a March 15 NPR article, the average domestically made cigarette contains between 1.1 to 1.7 mg of nicotine. The Juul Labs website also notes that each pod lasts for around 200 puffs. Knowing this, it is ludicrous that people under 18 are able to acquire these products, and the retailers supplying and marketing them are at fault. 

70th Emmys descend further into white mediocrity

If you watched the Emmy Awards last weekend, congratulations! You probably don’t exist. The award show — perennially denied the coveted “least relevant” spot by the god-awful Grammys — limped into its 70th showing in typical fashion and was rewarded with the lowest Nielsen ratings in its history. Questionable choices abounded in hosting, nominations and award selection. 

Views on the News: FEMA Trouble

Editorial: Consider the University's attempts to curb abuse

Views on the News: Stop BEZOS

EU's draconian directive puts memes on the chopping block

Enviromental film prompts tough questions on divestment

The stakes of Brett Kavanaugh's SCOTUS nomination

What in the world is going on with Elon Musk?

Commend BCC's expansion of mental health services

Study Abroad Mishandled Brandeis in The Hague

Descent into Donaldmania: A look at /r/The_Donald

 I’ve been reading every post on the front page of /r/The_Donald for just over 100 days now. For those who are lucky enough not to know, The_Donald is a subreddit which describes itself as “a never-ending rally dedicated to the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.” When Trump was elected, it had around 300,000 subscribers – now it has more than twice as many. It is home to Trump’s most ardent supporters, as anything less than absolute devotion to the president will result in a ban from the moderators. According to The_Donald’s own rules, racism will also warrant a ban, but that didn’t stop user “TheMormanTrump” from posting “Muslim rapefugees raping thousands of kids is a-okay to the Brits” consequence-free. The_Donald is the third-most active subreddit on the site, and has already begun mobilizing its subscribers for the upcoming midterms. 

Establish financial literacy as part of University Requirements

EDITORIAL: Recognize accomplishments of graduating Justice editors

As the academic year comes to a close, it is time to say goodbye to the graduating Justice seniors. All were essential members of the paper, and this board wants to take the time to appreciate their hard work and passionate personalities, both in and out of the office.

Acknowledge growing need for Israel-Palestine peace talks

Recently, the successful preliminary peace talks between the Republic of Korea’s President Moon Jae-in and Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea  have paved a potential path to the official end of the Korean War, technically ongoing since 1950. While this is certainly an inspirational and exciting moment in international diplomacy, another post-World War II sectarian conflict has only shown signs of getting worse. Persistently bedeviling world leaders since 1948 and contributing to a great deal of misery in the region itself, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict appears to be going nowhere. 

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Recognize safety risks of virtual personal assistants

When Apple unveiled their virtual personal assistant, Siri,  in 2011, they unwittingly opened the door for society’s growing dependence on such devices. Now, both Amazon and Google — multibillion-dollar companies — have similar technologies with capabilities that even extend to opening one’s home doors. While this new technology is certainly useful, it comes with a safety risk. In the past, this same technology was used in harmless marketing techniques, such as Burger King prompting Google Home to direct devices to the Wikipedia page for one of their burgers, the Whopper. An April 12, 2017 New York Times article further detailed the advertisement and stated that Burger King did not work with Google on the ad and instead took it upon themselves to utilize Google Home’s voice controls. The inception of the ad led to Wikipedia users taking to the Whopper’s page to edit the contents. Shortly there after, the ad was changed to no longer activate Google Home devices. While this is a harmless use of the technology, it opens the door for conversation about cyber security, and it leads users to question what individuals with malicious intent might be able to do with this same technology.