Ecunomist, Year 20, Issue 4

year 20, edition 4

The Ecunomist official magazine of study association ECU’92

secret

student life

beer cantus pole dancing

Student by Day, Stripper by Night drink, fight... and steal bikes? world’s hottest economists

guide to cheating on any test

contents 4 6 8 10 12

From the Editor From the Board The Fullproof Guide to Cheating on Any Test The Almanac Committee Beer Cantus - Pole Dancing

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14 Drink, fight... and steal bikes?

16 Confession Session: Student by Day, Stripper by Night 18 The True Entrance to the Magic World is Platform 13 Study Drugs - Steroids for you Brain 20

22 World’s Hottest Economists 24 1968: Germany’s most Rebellious, Perverse and Drugged Hour 26 Free riding on the Vacuum Cleaner 29 The Activities Committee 30 Final Say

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Five times a year The Ecunomist is published in a circulation of 1500 for the members, patrons, Ecunomen and external contacts of ECU’92.

John R.Tindel | Julie Ann Goodfellow | Christina Schenten | Milda Jasaite | Alexander Visser Leila Maria Scott | Miles Hilton | Jessica Krom | Sara Zapata | Willem Isbrucker | Kai Strohmeyer Study Association ECU’92 | Janskerkhof 12 | 3512 BL Utrecht | 030-253 9680 info@ecu92.nl | www.ecu92.nl | Printed by Drukkerij Hakker van Rooijen Special Thanks to ECU’92 Board

From the Editor

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ducatorium Megaron, somewhere toward the beginning of the third period. It’s 9:00 in the morning; the winter sun might have risen, but you can’t tell yet because of the ubiquitous cloud cover that always seems to come to rest on our little section of Holland.

The clouds are more blue than black, so you suppose it’s risen.

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ou’re cursing the alarm clock that tore you from your gentle slumber, the awful Dutch weather that left you cold and wet on your way to the Educatorium, and whatever sociopath decided it would be a good idea to set a lecture at this time of day in the dead of winter. Your stomach is irritated from the harsh coffee and Spar croissants you just ate for “breakfast”, and you’re in that state of caffeinefueled numb semi-consciousness. The lecturer immediately begins uttering some nonsense about how to derive a utility function and your

brain drifts off to somewhere far away. You realize that getting out of bed this morning was an exercise in futility and that you would have learned just as much by reading the lecture slides online as you have by coming. 10:45 can’t get here fast enough, in fact the break might be a nice time to abscond from this accursed place.

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o you’re bored.

You could begin doodling on paper, but that’s a bit juvenile; you’re in university now for God’s sake. You reach for your iphone with its angry

birds and fake zippo lighter app (indeed, much less childish than doodling), but then you realize that your dumb ass forgot to charge it last night and it’s dead. You reach for your textbook and try and get a jump start on your reading, only to realize that in your current mental state your brain is about as absorbent as the crappy Euroshopper “all-purpose cleaning cloths” that left lint and streaks all over your windows and taught you that saving an extra 20 cents was not always a good thing.

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ou’re bored out of your mind. You look at the clock, and although it feels like the insufferable unnamed professor has been droning on for long enough to have read all the way through Tolstoi’s “War and Peace”, you’ve in fact only been there for about 10 minutes. What are you to do?

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ell, have you tried looking around you? You’re in a room of several hundred people; people very similar to you (same university, same age, same study), yet also very different in their own ways.

How many of them do you know? Of the ones that you think you know, how many do you REALLY know? Maybe you’ve talked to them at parties; maybe you’ve had drinks with them or worked closely on a project. Maybe you’d even consider them a friend that you spend considerable time with. Considering how cautious we all are about letting other people in on the innermost secrets of our lives, though, chances are that you don’t know them that well at all.

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f you think about it, we all think our own lives are pretty fascinating, that’s why we talk about them all the time. Chances are, though, that in a world of six billion people, your life probably is no more fascinating than that of the person sitting next to you.

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e ‘re accustomed to putting people into boxes in our minds.

As soon as we get to know someone, we make a judgment about them, sometimes based on their manner of dress, the way they talk, their interests and hobbies. It’s a natural tendency, and while it’s no longer acceptable to categorize based on race or religion, we’ve found other, more socially acceptable metrics. I suppose it’s because we want to be around people who are more similar to ourselves; it reinforces and justifies our own personalities and works to boost our confidence. It’s a powerful thing knowing that you’re not the only one like yourself, that you are socially acceptable. well, have you tried looking around you?

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ow well do you really know these people you’re trying to categorize, though? There’s most likely something about you that you don’t want anyone around you to know. Considering that you’re really not that special (sorry, your kindergarten teacher was lying), that means that most people have things about them that they don’t want broadcast to the world. Some secrets are dirty, some secrets are fascinating, some embarrassing and some downright wicked.

As dirty and scandalous as

your inner secrets, thoughts and fantasies are, imagine as you’re sitting in the lecture hall that there are hundreds of other fascinating and perverse secrets floating around that we all think our lives are pretty fascinating, that’s why we talk about them all the time

same room. Sit down to think about it sometime, and you’ll never look at your classmates in the same light again. How many of the girls you see there have taken on a job working as a stripper to pay for their university education? How many of the tired faces just got off a three-day long, amphetaminefueled study session? How many of the “smart” students around you only got where they are today because they are good at cheating and not getting caught? Perhaps you’re unknowingly going to class alongside the next Mark Zuckerberg, then again it could be the next Jeffrey Dahmer.

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’m not trying to make you suspicious of your fellow students. We all have our dark sides; there’s a yang to every yin. If you think your secret’s bad, imagine what fascinating and miscreant secrets might be held by those around you.

a day in the life

by Heleen van der Meer

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he theme of this Ecunomist is ‘secret lives of students’. I first didn’t see the connection with my life as a Treasurer. But after a minute thought I saw more similarities. A board life as a student is like a secret life, in the sense that it remains very vague for most other students. This is why I would like to give you more insights into this by describing a day in my life.

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he word Treasurer sounds very exciting, at least that’s what I thought before this year. Money is the word that comes immediately to mind. And money is also basically key in what I’m doing whole day long: making sure that the money of ECU’92 is spent well and according to the budget. This sounds very logical, but the question is: What exactly am I doing all day long?

‘that sounds very exciting, at least that’s what i thought this year’

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ike the other board members, I start the day reading my mail and making coffee and tea. After that I start with the statement of accounts (‘afrekening’ in Dutch) of the party from the night before that we organized together with two other study associations (for example the Tivoliparty on the 2nd of March).

Since we are the study associations of the study Economics and Business Economics, in most collaborations we are the treasurer. To make this statement of accounts, I first contacted the other two study associations about the number of tickets they sold, and the costs they have made for the party.

Based on this information I make the statement, and after that I send both associations an invoice for the amount they still have to pay to us.

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fter that, it is time for checking committee budgets, updating the Treasury Board, bring the cash money to the Rabobank ‘A board life as a student is like a sexret life - it remains vague for other students’

and inserting all the money transactions of ECU’92 in the accounting program on the computer. Besides all these function-specific tasks, I am also busy with general board tasks like answering the phone, chatting with members, and coordinating committees. In the evening there are also lots of other activities for us, like committee dinners, receptions, activities and parties.

of a Treasurer

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hope you now have a better idea of what it is like to be the Treasurer of ECU’92, and that it seems a bit less like a secret life to you! Finally, since the end of our board year is coming closer and closer, we are looking for a new treasurer!

Therefore I would like to make use of this opportunity to promote my function and a board year in general! Besides the fact that is time-consuming, and sometimes a bit stressful and difficult, a board year is mostly very fun, challenging and good for your (personal as well as professional) development. So if you are in for something else after years of studying, and want to develop yourself in different areas, my advise would be: Go for it!

(Deadline for the solicitation letter is 21st of April.)

Heleen van der Meer, treasurer

The Foolproof Guide to Cheating on Any Test by: Anonymous (Note: Cheating on a test is against the student code of conduct. The consequences of cheating are very serious and could include failure of the test or class, expulsion, and even criminal penalties if theft was involved. The editors of the Ecunomist do not wish to condone or promote cheating in any way; this article is provided for entertainment purposes only)

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o, it’s exam week and you’re feeling overwhelmed. Three tests in three days and you’re not close to prepared for any of them. In such a case, the solution for some students is to cheat. The main cause of getting caught cheating, however, is cheating badly. Therefore, we’re providing you with this foolproof guide to cheating on any test.

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phone/Ipod touch tricks.

Our smartphones all have some very sophisticated features nowadays. Most phones have a pretty robust notes function, and some phones are even able to scan documents.

Though you can’t use your phone on the exam, as long as you set it to silent, you might get away with taking it to the bathroom and using it in the stall. Be sure to go through all the motions of a regular bathroom visit, though, and turn off the clicking sounds in your functions. The monitors are there to find cheaters and if they find your phone, you’re f***ed. Don’t have a phone? You can take a note sheet with you, however this is more dangerous. Most paper sometimes crinkles loudly; I would actually recommend writing on a high-density cloth so you don’t make noise when you pull it out. Toilet paper works as well. Never put it in your pocket or handbag, that’s the first place they search. Underwear, shoes, and bra are all preferable options as they’re the least likely places to be searched. Writing on your skin is also possible, but again make sure it’s not in a place that’s comfortably searched.

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anguage tricks. We’re all allowed to have a dictionary on the test for translating words into and from English, however they say that we can’t have notes in the dictionary. I’m sorry, but you’re pretty dense if you try just writing notes into the margins by hand. Good cheating takes time and effort. Scan a page from the dictionary, go in and start changing the definition text into the clues and hints you need on the test. Glue the page into the dictionary, following the same tell-tale signs.

It should be seamless and flawless, and it should really not look like there’s something stuck in the dictionary when it’s closed. Use a fairly dry glue (stick glue works well), as it will keep the pages from wrinkling. If you can do this in the English->your language section, all the better; unless you’re Dutch, chances are the proctor won’t be able to read your notes. It’s 10x better if you can speak a language in a different alphabet. Already speak English perfectly? You can logically assume that in a room of 300 examinees, the proctor won’t know this.

Learn Cyrillic and get a Bulgarian-English dictionary.

Too lazy to learn Cyrillic?

Go for German or French or something else mundane and common. Chances are that nobody speaks Inuktitut or Faroese at our school, so you’ll draw unnecessary attention if you bring an exotic dictionary.

continue to page 10

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he coke bottle. Get a bottle of coke or your favourite dark-coloured soft drink with an opaque label. Water bottles don’t work well for this one. Gently peel the label off and scan it into your computer. Get rid of the printed text in the ingredients field. Keep the formatting, colour and size the same, but add your own text. Avoid using really obvious mathemati-

cal symbols that would stand out easily (greek letters, square root signs, etc.), then print the label on a glossy, plastic- like paper (photo paper works well). Mount it to the bottle using a smooth glue and make sure that there are not any telltale signs of a fake; bulging seams, poorly-cut edges and printer lines are all dead giveaways.

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Let’s say you can’t lay your hands on the answers and you’re going into the test blind. There are still a great number of ways to bring study aids with you that can throw off your professors.

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et the answers beforehand. This is the most effective yet most difficult method of cheating. If you’re really good friends with the professor or one of the assistants, it might be possible to do this through coercion.

If not, perhaps you’re a gifted hacker who can log into the server and get the key beforehand. Maybe you come across the answers when the angel Gabriel visits you from heaven and presents them to you on golden tablets, Joseph Smith style (I dare you to argue this if you get caught). However you get the answers, be sure of two things. First, don’t write them all correctly on the exam, nothing brings more suspicion down on you than writing an essay exam perfectly. You can live with an 8,5, right? Second, whatever you do, don’t give the answers to anyone else, no matter how close they are to you or what kinds of temptations they offer you in return.

You multiply your chances of getting caught exponentially when you bring more accomplices on board. The answers are for your eyes only; cover your tracks and get rid of the evidence when you’re done.

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o there you have it, a foolproof guide to cheating. If you really must cheat, cheat smart and don’t get caught. The consequences can be dire.

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t’s almost that time! Next year, ECU’92 will reach its 20th birthday! To celebrate this fact there will be an awesome Lustrum week with lots of activities. But parties will be forgotten and memories fade.

Therefore we, the Lustrum Almanac committee, will make sure that if you forget the awesome time you had the last five years, you have a tangible way of remembering them! onsisting of Gergana, Bodo, Martijn, Cynthia, Lisanne, Tessa, Rutgher and Ton while being supervised by Jessica this committee is all about creating an awesome almanac! This magnificent almanac will contain information on the last five years of ECU’92 (and may dig even deeper in history!) and will have a lot of fun facts, gos-

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sip and photos of things happened and happening! o give you a view on our ultra-cool committee, I would like to introduce the members to you. Gergana Damyanova, who is very punctual while always keeping it cool, is the chairman of the committee. Tessa Dobbe never misses a word and is a great listener, which is why she was unanimously chosen to be our secretary. Bodo Verberkt, our treasurer, makes everything possible from behind the scenes, and is the treasurer of the Freshmen Committee as well. Martijn Alsem is the coordinator of sponsoring, and with his smooth talk he will make sure enough money is brought in to make the almanac really awesome. Rutgher Konietzka, our promotion co-

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ordinator, will make you guys buy the almanac as soon as it is published. Be warned! Cynthia van der Feen and Lisanne Hoekstra, our coordinators of design, will take care of the looks of the almanac. Ton Baas is the editor of the committee, and next to the serious job of editing he and Rutgher give us a good laugh every once in a while. Jessica Krom, the coordinator from the board, has taken on the challenge of keeping an eye on this group. nough about us. If YOU have suggestions, tips or a piece you want to see in the Almanac, or if you would like to write something yourself, do not hesitate to email us! The address is: almanac.ecu92@gmail.com

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the Almanac committee

Beer cantus ooops, sorry...smells bad...

Aaah, neon-green - hurts - eyes...!

pole dancing You Tarzan, me Jane!

smile, you’re in Ecunomist!

leg attack!

Drink, fight…

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by Leila Maria Scott

wise man once told me, “Leila, if you’re going to get arrested, do it before you turn 18.” I’ve followed his advice, though I’ve never been arrested. Unfortunately, some of us, students in Utrecht, didn’t have someone to teach them these sage words.

As a result, more than a few of our compatriots have seen the inside of the ‘Politie’ station and have gotten written up for slightly unsavory activities (hey, I BELIEVE you when you say you’re innocent!). After performing extensive research (I don’t advise or condone you to do the same), I discovered the “top student crimes.”

Public drunkenness resulting in mischief or vandalism I think this is one most of us have been guilty of at one point or another (or several times a week if you’re a pirate like some people I know…). Thankfully, the Polities, because they’re so damn polite, usually turn a blind eye to this. But, when it results in vandalism or mischief, you can face a fine between 60 and a few hundred Euros, besides facing a night in the drunk tank. If you’re a repeat offender, expect a court date, a fine and an obligation to perform community service.

A reliable source tells me that public drunkenness alone can result in a €50 fine. My advice: try not to break anything or more than a few compatriots have seen the inside of the ‘politie’ station

expose yourself while enjoying a night out.

Neighbor and Sound Nuisances Anyone who lives in a student building or near one can vouch for how disturbing a house or flat party can be. I myself have had the unpleasant experience of being woken by a group of drunken liberal arts students singing, “Obama, you came and you gave without taking…” which, no offense, was much more enjoyable when performed

by Randy Marsh on South Park. Even if you manage to avoid loud parties, you will no doubt be confronted with a large group of Dutch frat boys, singing some old ballad while stumbling between bars in the centre. Noisy students are usually given a warning, but house parties can face large fines if they ignore the warnings. My advice: if you’re going to have a party, invite your neighbors. If the cops show up, comply and turn down the music or your friends, at least for that night.

Stealing bikes Come on guys, there is really no excuse for this. If you really need a bike, just buy one from a junkie for €8. If you’re trying to make a tidy profit by stealing and reselling bikes (what an entrepreneur!), find another line of work, because this one can get you in trouble.

Your punishment will depend on the value of the bike you steal. Stealing something with a value of less than €50 will land you a €150 fine. €50 and above stains your record with a criminal offense and repeat offenders can look forward to possible jail time. Here’s another fun fact, throwing a bike into the canal will get you a fine of €180 and a couple of hours in jail. My advice: don’t do it. If for ‘some’ reason you decide that you MUST, choose the crappiest looking bike you can find. But just don’t do it. ‘if you’re gonna get arrested, do it before you turn 18’

and steal bikes? ‘if you really need a bike, just buy one from a junkie for €8’ Fighting While not very common in this country, fights occasionally break out. You are more likely to be witness to a physical altercation where high levels of alcohol and testosterone are involved, like house parties and football matches (or anywhere where Eastern European men tend to hang out). Watching a fight is not usually fun, unless it’s in a ring, being in one is even less fun. If, by some stroke of luck, you find yourself going ‘mano a mano’ with some poor sod, there are a couple of things you should remember. Firstly, the Dutch don’t take kindly to violent crimes, so try not to seriously hurt the other person. Secondly, you will probably have to pay damages to your opponent; fighting will directly affect your wallet. Finally and most importantly, the person who throws the first punch will take most of the blame, but not all. My advice: try to work things out verbally.

If you can’t avoid going all “Chuck Norris,” have someone there who can vouch that you were acting in self defense.

Peeing in public This is something I am not ashamed to say I am guilty of.

According to Moa Agrell, a first year Economics student, “I like to pee in public because, as a girl, I’ve noticed that girls are incapable of making their visit to the bathroom short.”

Sometimes you feel the call of nature at the most inopportune

that’s why my advice is to pee with a partner that can pay attention long enough to see if anyone is coming. This partner

moments, like when the queue for the toilet is 10 meters long or when you’re stumbling home after consuming enough beer to get an elephant drunk.

Dropping your trousers in public can be risky business;

can also distract onlookers in the event that they happen by, maybe by starting a fight or loudly singing a song about a Blue Whale’s vagina, which by the way can be up to two meters deep!

throwing a bike into the canal - a fine of €180 and couple of hours in jail

confession session:

student by day by: Jules Goodfellow

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ou say the word “stripper” and many images probably pop into your mind. But how many of them include cracking a book between turns on the stage?

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ary is her stage name, holy as it may sound.

She is a freshman student during the day and an erotic dancer by night.

She wakes up at 10 o’ clock every morning for class, after strutting her stuff until 3AM, closing time at the club where she works. She has class until 6 o’clock in the evening, which only gives her a couple of hours of rest before she starts her new shift at 10. There is a lot of news about area colleges and universities raising tuition fees to offset budget problems, but how are students paying for the price-hike during a time when many people who already have college and university degrees are out of work? It might surprise you to find out that some are baring it all to make ends meet.

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s a first-year student, Mary finds it hard to keep her eye on the academic reward, on having a career that doesn’t involve giving men lap dances. She just walks in those 6-inch stilettos and wears that skimpy thong, dancing night in and night out while making better money than some people with “regular” jobs. Mary’s more than able to afford rent, food, books and clothes; she even has enough on the side to take her friends out to dinner once in a while or enjoy a weekend away.

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ary started stripping half a year ago. She does it for the money, however it’s also much more convenient to be a dancer, not really being on a strict schedule. She can switch days whenever she wants and always has her days free, more flexible than any other student job she knows.

making an average of $75,000 a year

SHE IS freshman student during the day and an erotic dancer by night

stripper by night

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ccording to a British survey conducted by two female researchers at the University of Leeds, one in four lap dancers has a university degree. Many of them continue to dance after graduation and earn big bucks doing it. By big bucks I mean an average of £48,000 a year (approximately $75,000) after paying commission and fees to the club where they work. We should not feel bad for these women of the new economy, though; research also shows that most of them are pretty happy with their choice of profession. Times have changed and researchers say that this new generation of strippers doesn’t feel exploited, but rather empowered at being able to make large sums of money for a three-minute dance and a little chat.

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or most strippers in college, though, such a job is just a means to an end. Realizing that beauty fades with time, the smartest girls will keep their focus on education instead of making stripping into a career.

The true entrance to the magic world is Platform 13 (and other interesting facts about plagiarism)

by Christina Schenten

In Ibbotson’s book, “Platform 13” is the platform at the London station through which wizards can enter the magical world

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hat do Joanne K. Rowling, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, and Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” have in common? All of them, being authors, politicians and singers, have been accused of plagiarism.

Also, they have been extremely successful in their field, which is probably the main reason why their ploys became public at all.

ry this one. Orphaned boy, raised by his aunt and uncle who abuse him as a scapegoat for everything, severely mobbed by his fat, spoiled cousin, magical powers… Does this story sound familiar? Right, that’s not a hard one. That’s got to be our most

favorite wizard Harry Potter!

Invented by Joanne K. Rowling, huge success, millions of dollars. Unfortunately, the storyline just described was not taken from the Harry Potter books, but from Eva Ibbotson's “The Secret of Platform 13”, which was released 1994, three

years before the first Harry Potter book appeared on the market.

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n Ibbotson’s book, “Platform 13” is the platform at the London station through which wizards can enter the magical world. That does ring

a bell, too. At least Rowling ‘s remaining creativity made her change this into the way more mystical “Platform 9 ¾ “. Imagine all the poor people running against the wrong wall in the attempt of entering the magic world. All these broken noses are your bad, Joanne!

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his is, by the way, not the only book Rowling is accused of having plagiarized, there currently is another lawsuit accusing her of having copied substantial parts from Adrian Jacobs' "Willy the Wizard" stories.

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owever, Rowling is in very good company with her rather flexible idea of inspiration. Just recently, the very popular (almost pop-star-like popular) German politician Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg was dispossessed from his function as Minister of Defense because of plagiarism.

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is downfall started when it came out that almost the entire introduction of his dissertation was copied pretty much wordby-word from a newspaper article. As if that had not been embarrassing enough, some malicious internet-geeks investigated further. Up-to-date information from the especially created website http:// de.guttenplag.wikia.com/, where everybody can join the hunt for plagiarism in Guttenberg’s dissertation, reveals that

plagiarized passages can be found on 94% (!) of all pages.

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t is, indeed, tempting. That’s the case not only if you are an artist with lack of inspiration, but also and especially as a student, chronically short on time (at least when you realize you should get going with your paper two days before the deadline). While proper resources are scarce and the deadline around the corner,

uttenberg first tagged these accusations as “absurd”. When the evidence became too heavy, he voluntarily gave up his doctoral title temporarily, which was officially taken away from him permanently shortly after. This ultimately resulted in his abdication of all his poIT’S EXPENSIVE, EMBARRASING AND litical functions because HAS HORRIBLE EFFECTS ON YOUR of a severe loss of trust.

CAREER

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anilla Ice is another one in the hall of fame of “plagiaristic downfalls”. The beat of his super-popular song “Ice Ice Baby” actually was a (frankly not very well disguised) cover of Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure”. Unfortunately, he did so without having a license for it, and had to settle with a very painful monetary fine and the loss of his fame.

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his is what happens when you commit plagiarism when you’re very famous. It’s expensive (lawsuits), embarrassing (your fame was partly undeserved) and has horrible effects on your career.

However, also if you’re just a student, plagiarizing can have pretty nasty consequences, in severe cases even being expelled from the university.

Still, according to Plagiarism. org, about 40% of all undergrads admit to having plagiarized in the past.

suddenly this awesome article turns up, which basically contains everything you need for your paper. Change a few formulations, take out some too fancy words and the paper is done. But alas, it’s not that simple. Plagiarism software has become increasingly sophisticated and is able to spot plagiarized passages even if you did make slight changes.

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little tip at the end: Writing group-papers always requires a minimum amount of mutual trust.

However, if that dude who can barely calculate two times five comes up with all kinds of mysterious technical terms in his part, chances that he has just hidden his genius so far are rather low. Inserting some passages into Google search might solve this riddle pretty quickly and saves you from embarrassing inquiries about who did the copy-paste a little too often.

Study Drugs steroids for your brain

by Willem Isbrucker

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tudy drugs are the common name for prescription stimulants (specifically amphetamines) and are used to treat people who have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Specifically, they are designed to help them concentrate, focus and improve attention span... If you just thought “That sounds like exactly what I needed right before last periods exams!” you wouldn’t be alone. Drugs like Ritalin,

Adderall, and Concerta enhance student’s focus and endurance even if they don’t have ADHD by allowing them to accumulate more information in a shorter time frame. These drugs keep you awake longer, minimize fatigue and help maintain a high performance level. In fact, their performance increases are so strong

that an estimated 1 in 5 university students has used these drugs in the USA.

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o where can you get one of these pills sent from the study gods? Well unless you have a prescription here, you’re going to have to

Where can you get one of these pills sent from the study gods?

make some new friends. Ask around for the aforementioned medicinal candies and I guarantee you won’t come up short.

However, like all drugs, they don’t come without some side effects. These include insomnia, dizziness, decreased appetite, weight loss, and a lighter wallet (pills range from 3-10 euros a piece).

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ith finals just around the corner, many students need to bring up their marks, or move up that GPA. The usual course of action is the ‘study hard’, but with the assistance of study drugs, you may also be able to study smarter.

worlds hottest economists

by Willem Isbrucker

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Carmen m. Reinhart

ith a whopping 175 working papers, 40 articles, and 2 books to her name, I don’t think I’d be alone in saying I’d love for her to derive my demand curve. After completing Columbia University graduate school, she was snatched up by Bear Stearns and within three years had become the banks chief economist. Since, she has worked at the IMF, and held editorial positions and the American Economic Review and several others, essentially establishing herself as the Beyonce of the Economic world.

Joseph E. Stiglitz Check out: Credit rationing in markets with imperfect information (1981)

Specialization: Macroeconomics, Public Economics

The who’s who of economics

Carmen M. Reinhart Check out: The Twin Crises: The Causes of Banking and Balance-Of-Payments Problems (1999) Specialization: International Economics

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on’t worry ladies, you aren’t getting left out.

This he-man of an economist has published 250 articles, written 7 books, and 155 working papers, and all by the early age of 68. But don’t let the beard fool you, he’s not a total party animal. ‘J-Stigz’ has held academic positions at Yale, Princeton, Oxford, Cambridge and MIT as well as the Chief Economist position at the World Bank. And if that wasn’t enough, did I mention he has his own model (Shapiro-Stiglitz model)? Feel free to cut out his picture and tape it to your binder.

Joseph E. stiglitz

1968: Germany’s most rebellious, perverse and drugged hour

by Miles Hilton

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hey protested against fixed structures, the Vietnam War, a rigid sex-moral and the failure of Germany to illuminate the past of Nazi history in full view: Thousands of students went onto the streets in the sixties and wrote history under the cipher “68.”

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itherto, these happenings were the center of huge controversies in German society: Was this era necessary for a transition into the “modern society?” Or is the 68-generation responsible for a loss of values, scarcity of child population and crisis in education?

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he critiques of today argue that “fun-guerilla” had led to terrorism, practiced mainly by students.

Now, former students are accused of civil disobedience and symbolic acts of violence, which lead them onto a direct path to a manifest of violence

and terroristic murder.

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er year, more than a million VW-beetles were produced. The Germans were told that wealth is now for everyone. The most important values were “personal wellbeing, leisure time and consumerism.” Germany, at least West Germany, was finally built up again and satisfied with its circumstances. Germany was someone again.

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nd then this came along! A youth that did not care for their father’s achievements anymore.

Even worse, they degraded

their achievements. Their fathers were over 50, short hair, chubby, freshly shaved and incomprehensive. These Dads feared “the Russian” and disobeyed “the American.” Instead, they admired rectangular cut lawns and house rules. Their church service was held at the car wash. They called their wives “nanny” and threatened their children with the famous words, “Wait till Daddy gets home.”

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he big question was: “How many did you shoot down in the war, Dad?” The answer, told to every child, was absolutely in-

genious, “None, I always held my gun away from the enemy when I shot.”

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ermany’s society was fatherless. One half died in war, the other was like a black hole in space.

Wolfgang Schmidbauer, a German psychoanalyst, once reported of a patient who, when being in the vicinity of her father, had fantasies of him being “a black apple strudel,” sucking up energy and then annihilating it. Her father was a loyal Nazi but never told her anything about the war and about the party, the NSDAP. All she could remember of her time as a student were his muteness and some heavy arguments with him as she came into contact with the student movement.

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uteness and the rejection of memories became a fundamental reflex of the father-generation. Everything that had to do with national-socialism and its crimes had been lifted off of the backs of these men.

They wanted to have nothing to do with this. The mechanism behind this is described

by Schmidbauer, the ‘German memory of history’ divided the nation up into the bad guys and the victims. Dividing the wrongdoings of the home nation by the wrongdoings of the winning nations (bombardment of Dresden, millions fleeing, rape in East Germany) you get a balance of

pain suffered, which is then to be crossed out of the equation.

What is then leftover is a nation of victims and some who still think that building motorways (built on first instance for military transportation) was a great achievement and creating full employment was such a glorious moment because people could now finally build weapons for a disastrous third Reich.

“How many did you shoot down in the war, Dad?”

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hese fathers’ apathy about moral questions actually made them victims through the suppression of their own feelings. Without access to ones’ own feelings, there can also be no access to other people’s feelings. The inability to mourn implies an incapacity to show empathy.

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rofessors of universities were fighting for their privileges in an “antique” education system, which disregarded Germany’s increasing demand for modern largescale universities. None of these academics had understood that the future does not need any more buffoons, but people who are independent, critical, decisive and capable of team work. The protest of these students was a craving for knowledge, honesty and political influence. In short: The fight for letting go of all

fear of authorities and hence the rediscovery of “lust for life.”

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tudents started to form groups in which they could express their problems and interest, instead of only sitting in lectures, merely listening to the lecturer and taking notes. The stiffness and personal isolation disappeared.

Hair grew longer, smoker’s rooms were demanded and provocative articles were written in student magazines. Others were so desperate and suddenly sexually liberated, that they saw a need for love-rooms in schools. the protest of these students was a craving for knowledge, honesty and political influence

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ietnam came as a turning point. America, once admired for bringing democracy, jeans, chewing gum and Coca Cola to Germany and whose heroes were cool like Marlon Brando and rebellious as James Dean, was leading high-tech annihilation against little men in plastic sandals and black pyjamas. Their wives and children were only to be bombarded with napalm gas. But, because this same America guaranteed the security of the Republic of Germany and the freedom of West Berlin, the fathers were forced to muteness again.

Free the

riding

on

vacuum cleaner

by Kai Strohmeyer

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[Spoiler: This article is not about a new fun ride in Walibi.] ext to his or her public life - including activities like studying, sports, parties and work - every student leads a secret parallel life as a yellow-gloved cleaning gent or lady, just because this is a seemingly unavoidable part of living on one’s own. Probably, this applies less or not at all to those Dutch students who decide to stay at Hotel Mommy instead of betake themselves to the merciless, predatory wilderness of the Dutch kamermarkt. However, what is worth mentioning, that whenever I visited my Dutch squab friends, I entered a neat and tidy home. Whenever I visited autonomous friends (or myself), their student house was less clean in general. Not necessarily untidy, but at least to a larger extent compared to the Dutch parents’ homes. How is it that student houses are in general messier than family homes? There are several reasons one could think of.

I Cleanophobia

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ith regard to housekeeping, I claim that most students are spoilt when they leave home: In extreme cases, they didn’t have to do anything. Usually, they didn’t have to do everything. For instance, I had experiences with vacuum cleaners, dusters, cleaning agents, and I was able to cook when I left home.

At that time, however, you shouldn’t have asked me for advice about ironing or which clothes to wash together at which temperature – my closet had been self-refilling until last summer. In this way, there are first times for every student when it comes to housekeeping. For the less adventurous among us, for those who don’t like to play with fire, this can be very daunting.

The more adventurous, by contrast, may stop at the stage when they have made their first experiences: Sucking up the curtains or not being able to fold up the ironing board until one finds the bloody little arm after some days of intensive research can be very discouraging. On the other hand, these kind of experiences are much more fun than scary and just part of life, as long as they don’t fall in the category of serious household accidents, so that I believe that ‘cleanophobia’ can only explain the dirty

student house phenomenon to a small extent. Lack of experience rather leads to a higher household pollution during one’s activities, like unconventional cooking methods do.

II Something about Home Design

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doesn’t apply to girls (see year 20, edition 3). The aesthetic aspect is often a costly one, in two ways: Firstly, fancy furniture or wallpaper costs money. Not surprising thus, that IKEA is doing great in student city Utrecht and most of your furniture is not too charismatic next to serving its function. Secondly, cleaning and maintenance costs time, which the hard-working and harder-playing student doesn’t have. Due to these

his is a highly sociologic aspect. But let me first say something about the art of designing any object: Design has three functions: HOUSE IS A PLACE TO SLEEP, WORK, TO the applicatory INVITE FRIENDS, STAY OVER WHEN YOU’RE function, the BORED, STORE YOUR STUFF, EAT, SHOWER, f o r m - a e s t h e t i c ANSWER THE CALL OF NATURE (DOESN’T APPLY TO GIRLS function and the symbolic function. Interesting, isn’t it? understandable circumstances And here is the context: Homes – high costs, limited income are designed, too. Depending and time – only those picky on the kind of home you live nose-wrinklers among us in, these three functions are students judge you on your given different weight. Student living situation, and here we houses, far above all, serve in have arrived at the symbolic their applicatory function. level. Of course, how you That is, giving a a place to live, what it looks like, says sleep, to work, to invite friends, something about you. But a place to stay when you are from a sociological point of bored, to store your stuff, a view, it isn’t worth to invest place to eat, to shower, and to too much in it, because you are a student. On the one hand, the social group you want to Lack of experience impress - mostly students I leads to a higher guess - doesn’t give too much household pollution about it. On the other hand, during activities like unconventional cooking ‘So what – I am a student?!’ is methods always a great justification. This image of the student, sitting in answer the call of nature. Not a messy, makeshift home is to ruin Alex’ world: The last still deeply rooted in society, whereas working people have continue to page 28

to prepare for the judgment on basis of their homes - buy expensive furniture and keep it neat and clean: The neighbours could always ring and ask for sugar.

III The Dutch Housing Situation for students

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hen I came to Utrecht, I entered my new home: An overpopulated row house – seven students – with a messy garden, poorly maintained (if at all), everywhere full of dirt of the previous tenants, and in possession of this notorious Asian landlady – I cannot recommend her. It was obvious to me, that I didn’t want to spend the next three years there. Still, I had to take what I could get here in Utrecht, and this applies to the majority of students. This housing situation, however, creates huge disincentives to clean.

First of all, cleaning doesn’t really add to the atmosphere in this kind of houses, when for example the window is broken or the walls are

‘SO WHAT - I’M A STUDENT’ IS ALWAYS A JUSTIFICATION

mouldy. Too many roommates or too different definitions of cleanness can also add to tiredness of cleaning, since

your proud results of hours of dirt-mining can quickly become invisible again and you start to wonder: Why the effort?

IV The Free Rider problem

“

In economics, the free rider problem refers to a situation where some individuals in a population either consume more than their fair share of a common resource, or pay less than their fair share of the cost of a common resource.”

(Investopedia) In student houses, the messiest places are usually kitchen, bathroom and toilet – the common ground. The main problem about this is that these facilities are also those which due to their purposes lose cleanness fastest. The logical consequence is that they need to be cleaned. In an optimal case, everybody just eliminates his or her emissions. Yet, it’s not realistic that after each usage, the shower and the toilet are cleaned, and thus the individual, invisible emissions slowly add up to dirt, and individual contributions cannot be identified any longer.

Somehow, cleaning needs to be coordinated. A cleaning schedule is one possibility, but not very fruitful if not everybody voluntarily takes part in it – you cannot force free riders to do something,

because they don’t violate a law. This is just how it is in student houses: If one cleans the common space, everyone profits. Some will return the favour, others not. In the latter case, the personal readiness to clean significantly decreases.

V Identification

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lready aware of the fact that in our modern society of gender equality, cleaning agents in advertisement are solely presented by housewives? This does not raise the interest of students in ‘domestic affairs’.

YOU START TO WONDER: ‘WHY THE EFFORT?’

Guys, of course, don’t identify with these women, often called ‘Mom’ in these commercials.

For female students, it may even be deterring to imagine a domestic life after putting all this effort into one’s education.

Of course, advertisement is somehow mutual: The cleaning agent industry wants to address those who will definitely buy the good, and not try to make students buy it. Thus, we still have to wait a while until the trendy business man proudly presents a new toilet cleaner, which allows him to combine a successful career with a clean home, and even then we would wonder: Why can’t he afford a cleaning lady then?

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ACTIVITIES committee or Awesomeness combined

hroughout the year, the members of the Activities Committee bundle their creative forces and organize numerous activities to take your mind off all the studying.

The posters covering UCU are a constant reminder of all the fun that the AC continues to spread among the ECU’92 members. ighlights of the year are the two weekend trips, one of them in the Netherlands and the other in one of our neighboring countries. This year, the foreign excursion will take us to Lille, a beautiful French student city.

Subscriptions will start soon, so keep eyes and ears open for more information.

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o in whose hands are you putting your money?

Our committee is chaired by the strict, but charismatic Jessica Warren. Latina is our Bulgarian beauty and, besides being our secretary, she is the glue that holds the group together. Canadian-born Charlie is responsible for promoting the activities, so if this is the first time you’ve heard about us, she is not doing a very fine job. The fourth woman in the committee is one-legged Johanna, the watchdog from the ECU’92 board who makes sure we do not get carried away in our enthusiasm. reshman Job is the treasurer of the committee and gets to watch over the money that you pay us. So far, no money has mysteriously

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disappeared. Rutgher and Duncan are currently working on the foreign excursion and they guarantee that it will be a memorable event. Daniel’s task was to host the weekend trip in the Netherlands which took place in February. No complaints have been filed, so we can only assume he did a good job. he great thing about being in the Activities Committee is that no matter how much you make a mess of organizing something, it will still be a success if enough fun people show up.

However, you can rest assured that this year’s AC will be so successful that you might just be inspired to join next year’s AC.

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the secret ingredient to LIFE

by Jules Goodfellow

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t's tempting to end this essay right there. In this Secret lives of Students issue, a truckload of naked truths and revealing stories come forth, that may relate to us.

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he collected wisdom in this issue is dispensed by writers of various nationality (American, Dutch, German, Canadian and Filipina) who have achieved exactly enough status in writing to teach you about the pleasures and dangers of plagiarism, drugs, misdemeanour, and the many other secret delights of life in this mirthless world.

We are not united by our opinions about how you should live your life - as you'll see, there's a wealth of perspectives represented in previous pages. You should have access to a multiplicity of voices before you decide what you want your life to look like. We're just telling you what we know to be true.

Whether you accept it or not is up to you.

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ne thing is certain about the steps you are taking into adulthood: You're are, and are going make a lot of decisions, all the time, about every little thing: what

you eat, what you wear, what you major in, who you know, what you think, what you say, how late you stay up, how you treat your body, and so forth.

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our parents used to make most of these decisions for you, and in some cases, they still do. By going to university, you begin the process of weaning yourself from their decisions, and of living with your own. These decisions will affect you in tiny ways and in massive, lifealtering ways. Sometimes the effects will seem tiny, but become massive. Sometimes just the opposite will be true. You won't know. You can't know. Is there a secret ingredient?

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very decision you make, however insignificant, involves several others. The secret is figuring out whose voices to consider before you make it.

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ach of these is a decision you get to make. It may originate as a passionate impulse, but the step beyond the passionate impulse, the day after the amazing upall-night-on-hallucinogens epiphany, that is a decision.

And all these decisions have consequences. And though these consequences may affect others, no one causes them but you. Even though you may feel like you're living a rough draft of what your life should be, never forget that the decisions you make today have the power to shape who you are 5, 10, 20 years down the road. Each one counts.

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s opposed to what your parents, teachers, and student counsellors may have told you to scare you into studying for your Statistics and Econometrics, this is not a state of affairs to be scared of.

It's something to run toward, not away from. You're young and flexible. Years of contradictory convictions about religion, politics, art, academia, and morality lie ahead. Before your years of being a university student is up, you may find yourself doing things you never even imagined yourself capable of considering - heroism, betrayal, heresy, prayer, or hard work. The best decision you can make is to not be afraid of making the wrong decisions. You're going to make them anyway; it's inevitable.

That’s the Secret!

Jouw Jouwstudievereniging studievereniging wil wilhet hetjejezo zovoordelig voordeligen en makkelijkmogelijk mogelijkmaken. maken. makkelijk Dushebben hebbenze zeeen een Dus boekenleverancier boekenleverancier diedaarbij daarbijpast. past. die

Jouw Jouw studievereniging studievereniging werkt werkt nauw nauw samen samen met met studystore. studystore.

EnEn datdat heeft heeft zozo z’nz’n voordelen. voordelen.

Doordat Doordat wewe snugger snugger te te werk werk gaan, gaan, kunnen kunnen wewe jouw jouw complete complete boekenpakket boekenpakket snel snel aanbieden aanbieden tegen tegen een een scherpe scherpe prijs. prijs.