This column was first published in the UCLA Daily Bruin on November 19, 2008.

Don’t be evil – as the Google mantra goes. Or at least, be a little evil for the greater good.

Immediately after Google’s introduction of their new project, Google Flu Trends, the Cassandra cries roared from privacy groups. Cassandra was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, yet cursed so that no one would believe her predictions. This is no Cassandra, though; and there is certainly no privacy infringement disaster on the horizon.

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This column was first published in the UCLA Daily Bruin on November 10, 2008.

Thousands of people campaigned tirelessly for their respective candidate, and one campaign saw the product of its hard work materialize with Obama winning the presidency. But the grueling months of campaigning are over. The political jargon from pundits is over. The passion and drive to get someone elected has reached its climax, and we are left in a state of complacency.

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This paper was submitted for “Global Studies 1: Introduction to Global Studies” with Professor Russell Burgos and Aron Ballard in Fall 2008.

When the United Nations was created, it was seen as a forum for international relations—a place for nations to come together and strive towards a common goal, a “potential nucleus of a world state” . This aim, however, comes at the price of each nation forfeiting some of its sovereignty. But, by no means does this make the nation-state irrelevant in our globalizing world, as Kenichi Ohmae and Susan Strange have argued, albeit for different reasons. The United Nations, as an international organization and as a society of nation-states, pronounces the relevant, but changing role of the nation-state in a globalizing world.

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This paper was submitted for “Honors Collegium 30: The Vietnam War and American Culture” with Professor James Goodwin in Spring 2008.

I have set the parameters for my analysis from the Vietnam War in 1965 to 1968, also the time of Labor Party Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson’s term, and the Iraq War from 2003 to 2007, also the time of Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair and George W. Bush’ term. In both the Vietnam and Iraq Wars, a United States president pressed a Labor Party Prime Minister to commit forces to a war that was highly unpopular in the United Kingdom. Why then, did Wilson refuse President Johnson’s repeated pleas while Blair sent troops unquestionably? Undoubtedly, there are a bevy of circumstantial reasons to the divergent outcomes, but those reasons are heavily hinged on alliance dynamics, domestic politics, and the personality of the respective leaders.

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This paper was submitted for “English Composition 5W: Literature, Culture, and Critical Inquiry – Concepts of Reality” with Dr. Lisa Gerrard in Winter 2008.

Almost anything we create can be considered a work of art; anyone can translate his or her perspective through art, making art one of the most influential mediums. Puccini’s Madame Butterfly is one work of art that defined symbols of a culture for its viewers. “Here…here was a Butterfly with little or no voice—but she had the grace, the delicacy…I believed this girl. I believed her suffering…so delicate, even I could protect her” Gallimard says as he’s watching Song. On one hand, Gallimard is enthralled and intrigued while watching Song play the role of Butterfly—enthralled to have his fantasy modeled by her and curious if he can exert power over the meek Butterfly. On the other hand, Song plays the role as a “job” to fulfill his own duties (III, I, 61). In David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly, Gallimard and Song consciously use the influence of art to gain power and manipulate one another.

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