From New York Times:

Tim Russert, the host of “Meet the Press,” and NBC’s Washington bureau chief, has died. He was 58.

Mr. Russert was a towering figure in American journalism and moderated several debates during the recent presidential primary season.

Tom Brokaw, the former anchor of NBC Nightly News, came on the air at 3:39 p.m. that Mr. Russert had collapsed and died early this afternoon while at work. He had just returned from Italy with his family.

Mr. Russert hailed from Buffalo and worked for two prominent New York Democrats, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Gov. Mario Cuomo, before being hired in 1984 by NBC in its Washington bureau. He became bureau chief four years later.

For those of you that pay attention to politics, you know that Russert was one of the few anchors on television that still deserved the title of “journalist,” not just “talking head.” He was one of the few that actually made watching the election news interesting. And now we’re not going to have him around for the most important election in our lifetime. His expertise and integrity will be greatly missed.

Make sure you pour out a good portion of your Friday night 40oz for this dead homie.

Tim Russert’s Wikipedia

Many candidates running in the primaries are able to go back to their political careers nearly unscathed by the political process. It is already clear, however, that this campaign will have a lasting effect upon the political trajectories of both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

As a recent New York Times article comments, Obama’s campaign can be summed up in one word: growth. Obama’s campaign has only added to the inspirational picture portrayed through his two-bestselling books, “Dreams of My Father”, and “The Audacity of Hope”. He is compared to Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King to such an extent that some fear for his personal safety.

Clinton’s campaign, on the other hand, seems to be about mudslinging and accusations. The New York Times featured an article on Hilary’s “5-point attack” leading up to the primaries in Ohio and Texas. From attacking Obama of hypocrisy over campaign ad spending to comparing his foreign policy to that of President Bush, it’s obvious she’s decided to risk it all during these last few months. Should Hillary lose, it’s possible that her tactics during this race will haunt her political career. (more…)

Chances are you or someone you know has studied, or plans to study abroad. It’s a great opportunity to experience a new culture, learn a language, and travel to places you’ve never been before. But according to New York State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo (he’s the head of all law enforcement for the state), your choice of programs may have more to do with benefits for your study abroad office members than for you and your friends.

Remember that financial aide scandal last year? Large universities usually hire external companies to deal with student loans, and it turned out that several of these companies were bribing colleges with gifts and rewards in return for directing students to them. They got busted for it, and schools were forced to give back the cash they received. (more…)

Oh, Myspace! How we love denying all your porn spam. How we love the hours we spend perusing your bad, drunken poetry and those lovely 3 a.m. photos of beer pong. Wait a second…

The next time we log in to MySpace, let’s just hit delete. January 30 is International Delete Your MySpace Account Day. The idea was started by Bloggasm’s Simon Owens, who realized life is too short to wait for excessive banner ads to load.

Do we really need to know when the kid who sits behind us in Chemistry class celebrates his birthday? Do we really enjoy all those crappy Kelly Clarkson songs blaring from random profiles? And let’s not even get into Top 8 drama. Think of the hours we could save by not stalking people online. Maybe we’d have time to study for that quiz after all. (more…)

Does the food at your cafeteria suck? Want to make some extra cash? Can you cook candied olive crumble with fish, braised short ribs with scallops, robiola cheese with fizzy carbonated grapes or chai ice cream with miso-sesame chocolate and powdered peach and pineapple?

Didn’t think so.

Fortunately for Duke senior Bryan Zupon, who just loooves food, all this was a possibility. So, he opened a restaurant…in his dorm room.

Those Duke kids, they’re always going the extra mile. Damn overachievers.

“I don’t think that New Southern cooking has changed since the mid-’90s,â€? Zupon said to the New York Times. “I’d talked to a lot of big-name chefs in the area — for personal reasons and also for the newspaper — and they were so apprehensive to change. I was like, this is frustrating, so I’m just going to do my own thing and see where it takes me.â€?

Now I know, having grown up in North Carolina, that the state is not known for its culinary wiles. Although there aren’t any top restaurants, there are still some delicious places I look forward to eating every time I go home that could rival some of the best southern cooks out there. (more…)

With the money I spent on textbooks in college, I could now own a plethora of designer purses. Not that I need any more bags, but I didn’t really need any more books either. The textbook dilemma is never one easily solved.For the most part, you don’t know which books you’ll be using first before the first day of class and the requisite first day of class syllabus. I remember my freshman year I spent over $500 easily on books for my first semester.

That much money pains me now, much more than it did then. Back then I had the good ole M&D to rely on.

Now? Now I just have ramen. And rent due tomorrow.

So, you can’t buy your books before classes begin because there is the possibility you will never use them or just use them for one f*cking assignment. It’s so annoying.

Textbooks are essential to college and also one of the biggest college pains in my ass.

Here, I have outlined my no fail way to succeed at your first real college assignment: Buying Your Textbooks.

Textbook Tip #1

Don’t buy your books before the first day of class. There is just no need! I mean, really, you’re going to be drinking copious amounts of beer during your first few days anyways and having too much fun to even think about classes starting. Class, however, is an inevitable evil.

Textbook Tip #2

The next few tips take a bit of time and research so don’t get discouraged and just drop the dough down in the campus bookstore. First collect all your syllabi. Write down the books you will need. ISBN numbers are a gift from God. Write them down. Also make sure you have down the correct volume and edition. Nothing sucks more than buying the wrong book and having to search all semester long through the wrong edition for a particular page number or problem. (more…)

Once again, I have underestimated human nature’s obsession with sex and nudity. My little naive self actually thought that the bums in Knocked Up were the only people who thought they would be able to make money off of a website idea featuring celeb’s private parts in all forms. They had a sudden reality check when their hopes and dreams were killed by an already existing site…Well, it turns out that fantasy site is, in fact, a real website (mrskin.com) that saw a 35 percent bump in visitors when the movie was released. (more…)