I came to UCLA as an exchange student from Ankara, Turkey. What did exchange mean to me? Getting to know different people, different cultures, making new friends and widening my horizons. Read more...

Last month, two nuclear “watchdog” organizations formed a partnership to bid on the management contract for the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Santa Fe-based Nuclear Watch of New Mexico and Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, based in Livermore, are the first to announce they will compete for the contract, although other bidders are expected. Read more...

Trashiness: Americans can’t seem to get enough of it. Whether it’s Courtney Love, the Playboy Mansion, Jerry Springer or reality television, our society is obsessed with its own “lowest grade” culture. Read more...

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The misinformed opinion of Daniel Oakes (“Consider it: Racism is truly declining,” Feb. 7) is troubling. Not as much because it is the opinion of Oakes personally, and not even because it was insensitively published during Black History Month, but because Oakes’ self-serving interpretation of a single poll is probably not very different from a belief shared by a majority of people in this country. Read more...

Is it tough to think up a new topic every week? The question is often genuine and the questioner sincere. But for the columnist, it is perhaps the most unpleasant insult of them all. Read more...

Swastika ban pragmatic, not censorship Ilana Fried’s column “Keep historical honesty for future’s sake” (Feb. 3) appears to suggest that Germany’s long-standing ban on the swastika is part of an attempt to erase its ugly past. Read more...