Last Wednesday, I almost ran out of my class. Numerous deafening explosions caused the building and windows in Orson Spencer Hall to shake while dramatically silencing the class discussion at hand.

I was a destructive child. Never one to sit in the basement playing video games, I was more content blowing up plastic Army men and jumping off buildings. But whenever my antics got out of hand, my parents forced me to take responsibility. I still remember taking money to the house of a neighbor whose window I had intentionally broken with a rock. So yeah, I learned responsibility early on, but perhaps the U's administrators need a refresher course.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is a Virginia-based organization famous for its showmanship and claims to principled, high morals in what its website calls protection of "animal rights." Animals, in its estimation, deserve all legal and social protections afforded to humans.

In 2005, the academic journal Science reported that "nearly 20 percent of human genes are explicitly claimed as United States Intellectual Property." The commercialization of the human code has come into contest in a case where the American Civil Liberties Union is suing the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office along with the U Research Foundation and Myriad Genetics over the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene patents.

A Nov. 6 Associated Press headline was alarming: "Obama: Gov't working to ease pain of joblessness."

We hear the term "RINO" (Republican in Name Only) tossed around a lot in Utah, where anything left of Limbaugh is considered socialism. Indeed, our last governor was accused of being a RINO for a number of reasons, including his stance on civil unions and liquor laws.

Last week, the executives of the Associated Students of the University of Utah asked the Academic Senate to further restrict the amount of money and time candidates may spend on their elections. That will affect the administration as well as the quantity and quality of speech.

Last spring, Tayler Clough, president of the Associated Students of the University of Utah, campaigned with a promise to install a U-sponsored student mentoring program for Utah high schools. But as ASUU approaches a vote on the program, we wonder if "mentoring" is the right word.

The Natural Resources Learning Program in the parks, recreation and tourism department has seen an increase in student credit hours over last year's enrollment, to the tune of 500 hours.

One of the more intriguing developments in the Tuesday municipal general election will be the future of Proposition 1: Public Safety Facilities.