Apple 'rotten' with taxes

After Tuesday’s Senate hearings, it looks like Apple may be rotten at the core.

Apple CEO Tim Cook denied allegations that the company is avoiding billions of dollars in taxes by rearranging profits to foreign affiliates. However, following the law and following the law using loopholes are two different concepts.

Now whether the allegations lawmakers have made, accusing Apple of avoiding taxes on at least $74 billion in profits between 2009 and 2012 are true remains uncertain, although Cook didn’t openly deny some of those allegations. But setting up “ghost” subsidiaries in Ireland, as Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., described it, seems a bit out of touch with a company so fervently defending its American image.

“We pay all the taxes we owe, every single dollar. We don’t depend on tax gimmicks,” Cook said in the hearing, arguing the outdated tax code, and not the company’s practices, were to blame.

Well, essentially sheltering your money overseas from U.S. taxes is a gimmick, and the oldest trick in the book at that. If you earn a majority of your revenue in this country, 37.9 percent in the Americas, and are selling yourself as a loyal American brand, then you should be paying the taxes. It’s pretty simple: stop the gimmicks, stop the greed, stop taking advantage of the system.

While there’s always room for reform in taxes, claiming the system is so outdated is not a viable excuse for shifting your profits overseas to avoid the 35 percent corporate tax rate in the U.S. One could argue getting arrested for stealing an iPod out of someone’s purse is outdated, but that doesn’t absolve one of that action.

But I guess when you’re a multibillion dollar corporation, the rules are bit different.

Yahoo making mistake purchasing Tumblr

It was announced today Yahoo bought the social networking and blogging site Tumblr in a billion-dollar acquisition.

Yahoo will pay $1.1 billion for the site in an effort to reach out to a younger generation of Internet users, most of whom might not have known Yahoo is a search engine website.

The move is a risky one, as Yahoo is buying a company that never has posted a profit, according to Reuters.com.

And the purchase isn’t sitting well with users of Tumblr, who worry Yahoo will make changes to the site.

In response, Yahoo said the two companies will operate separately and made a “promise not to screw it up,” which, while sounding like a headline for an article in The Onion, is an actual quote from the company.

It’s time for Yahoo to sit back and realize this might be a big mistake. While the move is a gutsy one, the chance it will pay off is slim.

Yahoo is one of the most well-known websites in the world, but it’s overpaying with this deal. And by all means, it looks a little desperate on its part.

And you have to know you lost the Internet battle when I turned to Google to provide me with this information.

The only advice I could give to Yahoo is to make sure you still have your receipt after this purchase and to see if the Internet has a 30-day return policy.

Making up for lost time

This summer, it feels as though I am the only one who is not spending an extensive amount of time in a foreign country.

At the moment, I have friends in the midst of planning trips to travel to every place imaginable. My roommate is spending the remainder of this month in Paris. My best friend from high school is studying abroad in Poland. Within the next couple months, a few more friends will leave for England, New Zealand and Dublin.

So many of my friends have gotten the amazing opportunity to explore new cultures, and here I am in East Lansing doing the same old thing.

I grew up with quite the lackluster traveling experience. My parents never had the time or money to provide me these opportunities, and a result, the extent of my travel spreads to Canada, Chicago and Cedar Point (which I visited for the first time last summer.) I have never been to Florida. Or California. Or New York. I have left the country once in my entire life.

To say I am literally itching to see new things is a gross understatement.

So many people have told me that traveling outside the border of the United States is life changing.

For me, the hunger for such change has been one of the driving forces in my desire to become a journalist. In the world of journalism, traveling is not just recommended; it’s expected.

I have been pinned down in one place for most of my life, and once I have the means to travel through my profession, there won’t be anything stopping me.

A rewarding profession

There aren’t many things that bother me in life, but one thing that does is when people say journalism is dying.

That’s something I can neither accept nor believe.

While the profession may be listed as the worst job in the country or the butt of late night comedian’s jokes, I take pride in the fact I want to be a journalist.

From the first article I read for my high school newspaper to becoming its editor-in-chief to starting to work at The State News, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

Not only the work I do, but the hard work and effort from the people I work with makes me proud, especially this year.

From the Boston Marathon bombings to the impact one person can have on any given edition, there is no way anyone could convince me being a journalist isn’t rewarding.

The people I work with have proved that to me.

So people like Jon Stewart can continue with the jokes and it can be at the bottom of the worst jobs ever.

I know we’re making a difference and that’s all that matters to me.

Burgers over barbells

After the end of the spring semester, I wanted to commit myself to lose some weight and go to the gym.

It was a simple enough task I should have been able to accomplish, were it not for my inept laziness and lack of care for what people think of me.

I have gone zero times to the gym, but have eaten close to 20 hamburgers from McDonald’s during that time.

I’m betting my mom is proud of me for that statistic.

I’ve accepted the fact I won’t be a “gym rat” who spends hours at the gym, working on my physique while looking out for the new protein supplement on the market.

I’m somebody who would rather get more excited for the new ice cream flavor at Cold Stone Creamery than how much I benched that day.

Is anybody’s mouth salivating yet?

(Food break.)

Okay, while I’m not satisfied with how I look and know with the right work ethic I could have the body of a Ryan Gosling (and yes, that is my go-to for body comparisons), I still can accept myself for who I am and what I look like.

As for today, I think I might choose to head to the gym rather than the drive-thru … unless that drive-thru is connected to a KFC.

"Rating" the networks

The 24-hour news networks had their hands full this past week, finishing up coverage of the Jodi Arias trial and starting coverage of the Ohio kidnapping case.

While both are harrowing and tragic stories, are they really worth the coverage the big three cable news networks have been giving them the past couple of days?

Aren’t there more important stories that could be covered instead of these sensational, ratings-grabbing stories?

Apparently not.

The hunt to become America’s most-watched news network seems to be more important than the actual stories being covered.

Frankly, it has become sad that these networks are supposed to be the go-to place for our news.

I long for the days of Edward R. Murrow and Tom Brokaw to deliver the news and I’m just not satisfied with how the news is covered today.

Seriously, when did it get to the point where a comedian is more trusted to give the news than a journalist?

No respect for reporters

Apparently, I have the worst job in the world. I’m a reporter.

Janitors, butchers, dishwashers and garbage collectors have better jobs than me, according to new list of the top 200 jobs of 2013 by CareerCast.com.

The ranking factored in work environment, stress and hiring outlook.

Out of 200 jobs, newspaper reporter was listed as number 200 — dead last.

Part of me agrees with CareerCast.com’s list. I have to talk to random people and get rejected a majority of the time. I have to write a story every day, which is no easy task. I have to know how to take photos and video, blog, use social media and much more.

I get home from work when my roommates leave for the bars, and it’s hard to focus in class because I’m always thinking about making my 5 p.m. deadline.

To be honest, I hate my job sometimes. But, for some reason I come back to work every day.

It’s the little things that keep me coming back — receiving an email from a happy reader or the feeling that you touched someone’s life by telling a story.

Journalism is a struggling field, but I think the only reason I believe that is because everyone has told me so.

The truth is, no job is perfect. There are ups and downs to every profession.

I choose to be a journalist because it’s what I’m good at. I have found you love what you’re good at, and I want to do what I love for the rest of my life.

Tuition-free; a dying dream

Tuesday, the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art announced the college would begin charging undergraduate students tuition. The college was one of the last tuition-free colleges in the country, serving now as a casualty of the tough financial climate educational institutions weathered in recent times.

The college was founded in 1859 by industrialist Peter Cooper on the premise of providing a high-quality education that was “open and free to all.” The college prohibited any form of discrimination, and the majority of its students didn’t have to pay a dime.

That dream was extinguished Tuesday with the announcement that incoming undergraduate students would have to pay. Of course, institutions such as Cooper Union are a dying breed. But as these idealized visions of education gradually dwindle, it’s important to consider the implications for society.

Tuition-free institutions can serve as an invaluable tool to foster upward social mobility by providing top-caliber educations to students who otherwise couldn’t afford it. That opportunity is removed — to our nation’s detriment.

That being said, Cooper Union’s new tuition still will be considerably less than that of comparable universities. But as tuition hikes have become the norm across the nation, it seems no place of education is free from the pressure to continually expand.

This speaks to the increasing cost of doing business in education. Educating in the 21st century means grappling with a constant evolution in curriculum as well as the technological tools used to educate. The necessity of this evolution is apparent, but how our institutions grapple with the cost is a force that will reshape the idea of public education far into the future.

How important is success?

Is success the same as happiness? I love to take in the summit, but I dread the climb. Perhaps, in that sense, I’ll find success when I learn to relish the struggle to the top. But is it necessary to constantly search for higher peaks? One thing I know for certain, though, is pretending to reflect about this crap is worse than attempting any self-rumination in the first place.

It’s like the introspective version of the kitschy motivational poster in your high school principal’s office. In all honesty, it’s these sort of egocentric musings that pass as actual ponderance that make me despise the notion of self-reflection altogether. An individual’s opinion of himself is as subjective as it gets, and I find little value in attempting to reflect on one’s trajectory in life so closely.

Instead I find it much more worthwhile to aggressively pursue one’s passion(s) while striving for self-improvement. Certainly reflection is necessary for that, but not on such a superficial level. Success should never be the goal, but merely an unintended side-effect of hard work and dedication. If your work is motivated by the dream of achieving success, what will happen if you actually attain it? Will you seek for even more, like a junkie looking for a bigger high?

Success can be rewarding and it can bring happiness, but success, like all things in life, is fleeting and temporary. Finding joy in your work, however, is something that doesn’t require limits.

It must be a jersey thing

When I signed up to go to a Big Ten school last year, I never really thought much about the Big Ten problems I would encounter here.

I knew I would be faced with larger class sizes, a more diverse population of students, crowded streets and a much larger sports fanbase than my previous university — Northern Michigan University — that had a mere 10,000 students.

What I didn’t know, or rather, wasn’t prepared for, was the immense population of … dare I say it, jersey chasers.

I suppose it makes sense, seeing how many people attend Big Ten schools because of the varsity athletic programs, as well as for the never-ending list of intramural sports available.

With MSU’s large football, basketball, baseball teams — you name it ­— girls can get a little crazy.

Every sport needs its cheerleaders, and that’s not always limited to girls with pom poms. I understand students put on their team spirit, deck out in green and white on game days and really get into the games more than, say, a community or smaller private college might.

I’m in no way judging what people choose to do during their college years — that’s their own personal choice. But I do think “jersey chasing” happens too often here. Since when has college turned from a place of education to purely a dating ground?

Many girls here need a reality check when it comes to guys. I don’t care how beautiful you might look, the likelihood of you being “wifed” up by a D1 athlete is not that high. These athletes actually care about their sport and would like to focus on that before getting involved with anyone. They are, in a sense, committed to a relationship with their sport already once they sign that contract.

With that being said, it’s also more important to go to school for the obvious reason — schooling! Have friends on the sports teams, go to the games and be a college student, but there is no need to go out of your way to become a creepy stalker of athletes.

Ever since the new Twitter account “MSU Crushes” was formed, more and more people are stating their undying love and passion for so many people, regardless of whether they are a cafeteria worker, a fellow classmate or an athlete. However, as I scroll through the Twitter page, I see more and more ridiculous “love” tweets for so many of the athletes. It’s actually getting a little sickening.

So please, keep college in perspective and attend school for school and keep your athletic crushes low-key — there’s no need to become the very creeps you have loathed for years.