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ILLINOIS INSTITUTEVI/ OF TECHNOLOGY Vis-a-vis: VLADA GAISINA Opinion@technewsiit.com TechNews I Tuesday, October 19, 2011 Likes me, likes me not, likes a little, likes a lot ' Q By Vlada ' Gaisina ‘_ g3 _ OPINION EDITOR When I first heard about www:LikeALittle: com, which was featured in the Chicago Sun, Times and other publications, the concept of gushing about a cute stranger via a website seemed creepy However, after a friend linked to it on Facebook with a disclaimer about how funny it was, I became intrigued: As it turned out, LikeALittle is something like mass Twitter , there is a “wall" for each of many colleges across the country where any, one can post an anonymous “flirt" The format goes like this: “I am looking at a Girl/ Guy (pick one) with (pick the color) hair at (picklocation or enter a new one)," followed by atext box: On the IIT page, the posts range from endearing to funny to plain odd: Some of them were clearly written as a joke, but others appear genuine: Here are some of my favorites: “Teshirt tucked into shorts: In December: This is making my finals week worth it: Delia cious" “You rode away on your little cycle with my heart you tan, tan man." At Center Court: “love your panini:" “You were my philosophy professor last semester, and I’ve never been so stirnulated::: intellectually Hot Mexican." “Hey cute boy in the blue, I like the way you work: Workin’ that wood so slow and steady You seem like you don’t care if it’s dirty , but I suggest you use a 400 bit sandpaper to clean off all the bumps on your project" Though occasional trolling can be spotted, posts on LikeALittle across campuses tend to be creative, heartfelt, and cute: It’s a different approach to flirting, but much needed for col, lege campus es: In an era when people no longer carve names of their beloved on park benches, but can discover the world from the palm of their hand, digital flirting offers the possibility of connecting with your crush without risking embarrassment: It is especially appropriate for IIT, where the student population is ripe with awkwardness: Flirting doesn’t come naturally to everyone, much less the tech nerds that comprise a large part of IIT’s student body Here is an example of a typical approach to social situations: [23:25] IITguy: you basically said: we can date::: but if you’re looking for a relationship, you’re out of luck [23:25] IITguy: you have vaguely defined dating and lack almost any hard description of relationship Sadly, this is not a quote from The Big Bang Theory, but something pulled from my own experience: I won’t claim that women are in, nocent, though: Someone I know was recount, ing how a girl he asked out originally said “maybe" and then never talked to him again In her mind, she was probably trying to avoid being rude, and then later avoid the situation altogether, which is precisely the wrong thing to do: Without stomping on SexTech’s turf, the point is that handling romantic situations is a learned skill: LikeALittle, with its ease of ac, cess and anonymity, can help the fainteofeheart romantics and the rest of us who often recog nize a connection with an attractive stranger a little too late: People can comment on posts and send private messages to the author, thus allowing the object of the post to follow up with its writer: This will not always turn into a success story, though LAL has a number of positive testimonials: But the more people use it, the better the chances: At the moment, IIT’s LikeALittle probably serves little purpose beyond entertainment, since so few people know of it and use it: Mean, while, the University of Illinois’s page gets the same number of posts a day as IIT does in a week Even taking into account the difference in population size, we could be doing better: So go ahead, take your best shot at a clever nerdy flirt, and you might even be featured on LAL’s daily feed: Because “Baby, if you were words on a page, you’d be what they call fine print" What's your angle? An ethical discussion on current topics By Annie Hutches TECHN Ews WRITER This week: Who should survive? “I’m so frustratedl" “What’s got you down?" “We recently had our 25% review for Stu, dio, and the reviewers brought up a valid, but diflicult point: We are designing a survival ref treat for the end of the world as we know it, and they want us to think about why the peo ple are chosen to survive" “Why can’t everyone survive?" “See, that’s the challenge: We are supposed to design a retreat for 24 people , not everyone can fit: So far, many of us are hiding our retreat from “outsiders" in order to keep the people who bought the retreat safe:" “So everyone else is just going to die?" “Well, I hope not, but the more people you add to the program, the more problems it cree ates: You need more space, more food, more everything, including security, and on top of it, the more people you have the more diflicult it is to keep everyone safe, and that’s the whole point of the project; to keep people safe:" “How will you decide who gets to stay in your fancy safe house?" “It will be the people who are funding the project, the people who are taking care of the project before the end of the world as we know it, and their families and friends: So basically, people who are smart enough to plan ahead and have lots of extra cash to spend on a proje ect that may or may not become needed during their lifetime" “S0 only ridiculously rich people are g0, ing to survive the end of the world? Did the reviewers have any suggestions on how to solve their ‘ethical dilemma’? It kind of seems ridicue lous for them to bring it up, if it’s not part of your project::: I mean, you are designng this for a certain small group of people, right?" “Well, they mentioned making the building into a prototype, so that it can be easily replie cated and spread all over the place, but even with that suggestion, there are people who won’t be able to afford a survival retreat no matter how cheap it is, there are people who don’t have houses or enough food to eat: Not everyone is going to survive: I can’t stop the end of the world as we know it from happen, mg I just don’t know what to do about it" What’s your angle? Send your thoughts to peds.iit@gmuil.com The 2011 mayoral race By Kushan Trivedi TECHN Ews WRITER Come February 22, 2011, Chicago will be voting for its new Mayor, and if none of the candidates get a clear majority, then April 5, 2011 has been set as a runoff date: Incumbent Mayor Richard Daley, who has been holding that post since 1989, isn’t seeking a new term: Six names would be appearing on the voting ballots for the post of Chicago’s Mayor: Rahm Emanuel: Former White House Chief of Staff and US Representative for Illie nois 5th District Gery Chico: Former Chief of Staff to May, or Richard M: Daley and the former chairman of the City Colleges of Chicago Miguel del Valle: City Clerk of Chicago and former Illinois State Senator Patricia Van Pelt Watkins: Noneprofit ad, ministrator and activist Carol Moseley Braun: Former US Senator from Illinois and former US Ambassador to New Zealand William “Dock” Walls III: Community activist and former aide to Mayor Harold Washington Rahm Emanuel is currently emerging as the favorite, and with 49% of the votes in the WGN/Tribune poll, seems to be within strike ing distance of the victory figures of 51%: On February 15, Rahm set out to visit 50 wards in Chicago in 50 hours and speak to the voters: After one of the worst winter storms in Chi, cago’s history, Rahm was seen helping clear the snow This act even gained praise from the President himself, who commented that his oneetime White House aide is “doing just fine" on his own: With Chicago ranked 3rd in the list of most corrupt cities in the United States by Forbes magazine, the city is in search of a strong and ethical leadership: And based on what the ex, perts say, Rahm Emanuel would be the right choice: The list of issues with which Rahm has been dealing during his campaignng includes job creation, education, combating crime rate, city finances, energy efficiency, city transportae tion, LGBT equality, good government, energy efficiency Tax Increment Financing(TIF) ref forms and food access: However, coming into the mayoral came paign, Rahm has had to face a rollercoaster ride: His application for the mayor of Chicago was overturned by Illinois Appellate Court, with two of the three judges voting against him: For the past year, Rahm’s opponents have been trying to toss his name off the ballot: Howeve er, with the Illinois Supreme Court passing a judgment in his favor, Rahm Emanuel’s name would appear again on the mayoral ballots: The mayoral election in Chicago would define whether race or ethnicity still plays an important role in politics, or whether we are making progress into a posteracial era: Aver, age voters in Chicago might not be blindly supporting a candidate based on their race or ethnicity They definitely care about a lot of is, sues, ranging from corruption and economy to crime rate and education. Going by the figures from the exit polls, Rahm Emanuel appears to be a likely succese sor to Richard M: Daley, and the issues he has taken up paint the picture of “Rahmb0" to the rescue: However, if the issue of race plays a ma, jor role at the polling places, then the outcome will be far from certain: