ISSUE
9
OF
ORIGINS,
AN
INDEPENDENT
MEDIA
PUBLICATION
ETHAN’S USELESS KNOWLEDGE (THAT WILL HELP YOU IN YOUR LIFE IN NO WAY WHATSOEVER) ly heard about Miley Cyrus and her performance at the MTV Video Music Awards. Even if you didn’t, chances are you still know about it. For weeks, it seemed like that was the most popular topic most news outlets wanted to discuss, and even now she is the butt of many a joke, all thanks to one performance. At the same time, however, reports confirmed that the Syrian government had been using chemical weapons in its civil war against Syrian rebels.
pop star than it is to pay attention to violence and political debates, but is it truly the aim of major news outlets to be fun? If actions dictate intention, many outlets seem to think so. It feels as if many news sources are paying more attention to providing entertainment rather than providing the public service of well-informed news. The implications of such phenomenon coming to light are grim.
Have you ever seen this symbol before?
It’s called an ampersand and it’s kind of silly looking. You’ve probably seen this used in fancy titles at the movies, or on handmade signs to save space. Most people know it means “and,” although it’s actually a ligature of the word et, which is Latin for “and.” A
Despite this shocking piece of news that many proclaimed may lead to a new World War, in the United States, more consistent coverage was still given to the young singer. Now sure, it is a lot more fun to pay attention to a sexy young
ORIGINS
SCIENTIFIC
RESEARCH
SOCIETY,
PUBLISHING
SINCE
MAY
2012