I bet you know someone our age who went to Ground Zero last Sunday to celebrate Osama bin Laden’s death, or that you were there yourself. Pretty much e-v-e-r-y news outlet described the crowd as “youthful and jubilant.” We are the generation just old enough to remember 9/11 and who have waited half our lives, quite literally, to see bin Laden caught. Celebrating a person’s death would usually be unquestionably perverse, but with bin Laden it seemed at the very least understandable, and at the very most an act of patriotic duty.
America has finally eliminated the man who was the architect of 9/11, amongst other tragedies, and who was the direct cause of the gateway drug of a war in Afghanistan, so… now what?
Part of why it’s hard to imagine what’s going to happen in a post-bin Laden world is we’ve never lived in a pre-bin Laden one. Our politically-conscious selves were almost certainly born out of fear on or after 9/11, so this “age of terror” is really the only age we know the terms of. Before looking beyond bin Laden, it’s important to remember why it was so important America caught him. To quote Louise Richardson from her book, What Terrorists Want: Read more…
Champions League semis time! Over the next two weeks, two teams will move one step closer to the ultimate goal in European soccer, while two others will go home and pretend that they “didn’t even care about Champions League anyway” (copyright: me when Barca lost Copa del Rey last week). This year’s semifinals feature the third and fourth Clasicos between Real Madrid and Barcelona this month, as well as a relatively storyline-free clash between Manchester United and Schalke 04. Which Spanish giant will win? Will Schalke’s Raul and company extend their surprising run by defeating soon-to-be-crowned EPL champions Man U?
You’d be forgiven for not realizing the semester’s almost over since we didn’t actually get to enjoy any semblance of “spring” in New York during Spring’11. Undeterred by the woeful weather, NYU’s unfaltering Program Board has planned two unmissable events on back-to-back days in early May to finish off the academic year in style. 
Last week 
Mistaken by some (including our editors) as an elaborate April Fools joke, an article titled “Getting To Know Americans” under the international students section of NYU’s website went semi-viral at the beginning of the month. Intended to help foreigners (like myself) understand yankee culture, the article ended up sounding pretty bizarre — characterizing Americans as people with a “missionary spirit” for whom “success is often marked by the amount of money and material goods a person is able to accumulate” and who “usually think of nature as something that can be altered, conquered and controlled for people’s comfort.” Even if that’s true (and I’m not inclined to believe it is), the delivery lacks subtlety.
Remember those charming fellows from Das Racist who 
