Ben Moss

November 12, 2013

People or Parasites?

By Ben Moss

Columnist Ben Moss explains why refusing to reproduce will most likely not save the planet.

October 25, 2013

The Red Bull and Pizza Experiment

By Ben Moss

Columnist Ben Moss explains why Red Bull and pizza may be the solution to all of your scholastic struggles.

October 15, 2013

The Problem With the Nobel Prize

By Ben Moss

Columnist Ben Moss explains why awarding the Nobel Prize can be problematic when it comes to the humanities.

May 31, 2013

Study Tips from Highway Nirvana

By Ben Moss

The last weekend before dead week is an academically serious one, though not an Adderall-fueled study binge like the two weeks to follow. This year, Memorial Day weekend was a gentle, deliberate windup in preparation for...

May 21, 2013

Finding Solitude in Modernity

By Ben Moss

My girlfriend and I decided to go to the gym instead of attending Extravaganza. I know that’s something like blasphemy at UCSB, but we were still recovering from a party at my fraternity on Saturday night. And anyway, ...

May 16, 2013

Mother’s Day Pink

By Ben Moss

  When I wake up on Mother’s Day, I’m reminded of two things: One of them is my mother, and the other is not. Like everyone else, I spend a few minutes thinking about how my mother performed herculean labors of ...

May 7, 2013

<3-to-<3 in Ones and Zeroes

By Ben Moss

I was mindlessly browsing the internet the other day, as one does, and I came across an article promising to reveal the 21st century’s sexiest career. I must say, I never expected Yahoo! Finance to be so infatuated wit...

April 30, 2013

Grammar Be Good, But Only Rock Stars Sell Their English

By Ben Moss

I’m not sure you can call what I do “journalism”; I’m just not sure it makes the journalistic cut. That said, there’s just no other heading for it, so if I can do so without bringing out any real journalists’...

April 23, 2013

The Art and Science of Moving Lecture Along

By Ben Moss

I think there should be a course on lecture hall etiquette but, unfortunately, no such thing exists. That’s why, this week, I’m going to use my status as a columnist to denounce what I consider the most common and ir...

April 19, 2013

All Eyes on Spring Insighters

By Ben Moss

This last weekend, my fraternity and I spent the day directing traffic at Spring Insight, the annual event engineered by UCSB’s Office of Admissions and facilitated by hundreds of volunteers. For as many volunteers as ...

April 12, 2013

Lions, Tigers and Apartheid, Oh My! The Truth About Political Name Games

By Ben Moss

You’ve probably heard about the massive controversy regarding a proposed piece of Associated Students legislation. A nine-hour Mexican standoff between proponents and opponents was so well-attended that the meeting was...

April 5, 2013

365 Days, 365 Reasons to Celebrate

By Ben Moss

The calendar is too cluttered with special occasions. If you cast a wide enough net, we’re always close to a holiday or something else noteworthy. I have 19 first cousins, and they all have birthdays. If you went to el...

March 8, 2013

North Korea: Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are

By Ben Moss

You have probably already heard that about a month ago former Massachusetts senator John Kerry took office in President Obama’s cabinet, beginning his service as U.S. Secretary of State. Since assuming office, Kerry ha...

March 1, 2013

Globalization: The Boogeyman Whose Chills Only Run Skin Deep

By Ben Moss

The present and future of the world is global. So we’ve been told repeatedly, in a variety of ways, in a number of different contexts. It is a recurrent theme in our education at UCSB and its discussion is amply encour...

February 22, 2013

Don’t Throw Out The Trash Just Yet: The Redemptive Value of Garbage TV

By Ben Moss

  I don’t watch much television now, but when I do I live on the extremes. I’m a college man, so it’s sort of my duty to play the intellectual, at least as a façade. I’ll watch “60 Minutes,” which is ed...

February 8, 2013

When In Doubt (Or When Global Warming Bears Its Fiery Teeth), Optimism Is Always A Cop-Out

By Ben Moss

U.S. News & World Report, a website I use primarily to scoff at universities ranked below UCSB, happened to run an article recently headlined, “Study: Global Warming Can Be Slowed By Working Less.” The accompanyi...