Economies are founded on a basic principle: Labor earns compensation. Advanced economies take it a step further and ensure fair compensation for workers by rule of law. But, somehow, a multi-billion dollar American industry has for years swept this inconvenience under the rug, paving the way for executives to earn Read More…
The Red Sox just made one of the biggest trades in baseball’s recent past: We sent our best player — a pitcher who brought us the 2007 championship — and an outfielder we bought for $142 million, to the Dodgers, and in return we received… um… eh… James Loney? As a fan, I should be devastated; we gutted the team and waved the white flag for the foreseeable future. But all I am is happy. It is a melancholy joy, for sure. I never thought we would go more than three years without making the playoffs — and that itself is the problem. Read More…
For Berkeley, fall means rebirth. Fall means watching the nighttime airplanes loom closer until they’re swallowed up by the city lights, delivering students back home for another few months. Fall means a clamorous late-night din followed by quiet morning strolls through campus. Fall means something that is at once leisurely Read More…
As the sun beats down one sultry summer afternoon in Nagpur, India, something in the air is amiss. The roads are barren, devoid of the daily bustle that so regularly consumes the city. The crowded country of 1.2 billion people is as quiet as it will ever be, huddled indoors, Read More…
Cal won 17 medals at the London Olympics, but what if it turns out that number increases? What if Cal actually won 22 medals — 15 golds — and we didn’t even realize what was going on? What if the London Olympics really solidified Cal as the No. 1 school at which to be an Olympic athlete — instead of No. 2 or 3 — blowing Stanford, USC and every other American school out of the water? What if Missy Franklin comes to Cal? Read More…
The Summer Olympics are essentially to the rest of the world what the FIFA World Cup is to America: an excuse to adopt some crazy fanaticism about sports one knows absolutely nothing about. There are, of course, countless “hell yeah!” moments in any given Olympics — most of which involve Team USA. But for every “hell yeah!” moment, there’s at least one that takes you by surprise and makes you stammer, “What the hell?” Read More…
Sarah Attar, who is eligible to compete for Saudi Arabia because her father was born there, is one of the first two Saudi Arabian women to ever compete in the Olympics. Judo competitor Wodjan Shaherkhani, born in Mecca, is the other. In the first Olympics since the Arab Spring began two years ago, Brunei, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are all sending women for the first time. A female athlete will represent each of the 204 countries in the Olympics for the first time in the history of the competition. Read More…
Bonfire as we know it won’t happen this year. Even backstage at the Greek Theatre, the heat from the Bonfire cracks toward you like a whip and makes your eyes water. Even in the midst of a torrential downpour — as has been the case for the past two years, at least — the dying embers can still steam dry your clothes if you stand close enough in the pit. Read More…
There’s been a lot of talk lately about how football has replaced baseball as America’s sport. Football dominates television ratings as baseball’s pace lumbers in today’s overstimulated society and a younger audience of fans dies off. In spite of all of the backlash, baseball may have found its saviors. Read More…
The dust grows thicker as you dig deeper into the past, as the dates on the thick blue volumes tread slowly back from the start of the 21st century and into the decades of the century preceding it. Two dank flourescent bulbs shed just enough light on the pages to Read More…
