Corrected formatting and other minor issues

_posts/2015-02-09-cloak-of-anonymity.md

@@ -7,12 +7,19 @@ tag: editorial
 excerpt: Anonymity over the internet and the effect it has on people raises several interesting questions about human nature, especially in the aftermath of Wikileaks and The Fappening. While the first utilized this anonymity to raise a voice against world governments, the other used the same for depraved motives.
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 _"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."_
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 - __Oscar Wilde__
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 Anonymity over the internet and the effect it has on people raises several interesting questions about human nature, especially in the aftermath of Wikileaks and The Fappening. While the first utilized this anonymity to raise a voice against world governments, the other used the same for depraved motives. What remains beyond question is that humans behave differently when under the shroud of anonymity. But do people behave irrationally due to this newfound freedom or does anonymity just bring out the real person we hide behind a self we pretend to be in order to gain social acceptance? And if the second case is true, are websites that allow user anonymously to blame to any extent, considering they only bring out the truth?
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 It is usually accepted that the internet is a means to escape from the heartless mistress that reality is, a place where we can pretend to be whoever we want to be. Once a person has an entity or more precisely, a representation of himself on this network in the form of a profile or an avatar, he is still held responsible for his activities. However, there are a number of popular internet sites that don’t require the user to submit any kind of identification information. It is not very surprising then, when a 4chan user hacks into celebrities’ clouds and leaks their private photographs. Never before has mankind been exposed to such freedom from social responsibility, something which not everyone can handle.
 
 Deindividuation, which in many cases is a direct result of anonymity, bears explanation to a lot of situations we encounter in everyday life. It's what happens when the notion of social norms is withdrawn due to concealed identities. A classic  example of de-individuation is the Halloween Study conducted by Ed Diener in 1976. Diener and colleagues had a woman place a bowl of candy in her living room for trick-or-treaters. An observer was placed out of sight from the children in order to record their behavior. In one condition, the woman asked the children identification questions such as where they lived, who their parents were, what their name was, etc. In the other condition, children were completely anonymous. The children were then left alone with a bowl of candy with instruction to take only one piece of candy. Being part of an anonymous group far outnumbered other conditions in terms of how many times they took more than one piece of candy. In 60% of cases, the anonymous group of children took more than one piece, sometimes even the entire bowl of candy. Anonymous individuals and children who were identified but part of a group tied for second, taking more than one piece of candy 20% of the time. Children who were both identified and alone were the most law-abiding, taking more than one piece of candy only in 10% of cases.
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 So, what exactly causes the un-masked trick-or-treaters to refrain swiping a few extra candies?
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 The most obvious answer would be accountability. In a society, we are responsible for anything and everything that comes from us. By imagining a situation where no one is able to question us for our actions, we realize that being anonymous is the same as being invisible in the contemporary world. Although, the cloak of invisibility brings out the best in Harry, in Rowling’s universe, it nevertheless continues to be a potentially lethal object. The cloak of anonymity on the internet gives us great power, and with great power comes Uncle Ben’s clichéd quote which, in fact, has never rung truer.
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 We find that, after spending a staggering amount of time on social media, people in general are rude over the internet. This could be a consequence of the step-by-step accumulation of a person’s anger, when he types down the text. In many cases, however, the person’s anonymity might be one of the reasons behind this phenomenon.  
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 Ever sat behind the wheel of a car and felt moved to scream abuses at the person in front who is slow in turning right? Or ever wondered what could possibly motivate a responsible, educated father-of-two to yell crude expletives at the opposition- words he wouldn’t usually use in civilized company? It’s the cover of the crowd and the insides of the car that provides an alias or a security. It removes the condition of accountability and dilutes the guilt (if any). And hence, the cloak shows its lethal nature. The person in question loses self consciousness and succumbs to the animal instinct of the herd. The dam of patience gets broken and the first stone gets thrown. Anonymity, thus, like a sinful gift from Lucifer claims its victim. 

_posts/2015-02-09-freemasonry-at-IITR.md

@@ -16,11 +16,15 @@ After following a long trail of paperwork and tips from several anonymous source
 
 For some time, the signs of freemasons have been quite obvious on the campus. In a way that can give buzzfeed a run for its money, we present to you the findings of our investigation: **How IITR is being taken over by the New World Order supported by Freemasons?**
 
-For a long time now prominent members of the Debating Society have been spotted doing an obscure, elaborate combination of movements right in front of the hobbies club. Though one might think that this is largely due to social rejection as a result of being annoying, it might be what we assume to be some sort of a mandatory entrance ritual to a secret chamber inside. 
-The main building was unceremoniously renamed the James ThoMASON building earlier this year. We believe that it was for a reason. A very particular reason.
-That squabble of illegible words on the top of what is possibly the most beautiful part of the campus, is a visible evidence to the Gothic sub-culture of IITR. For those who were questioning the Thomso team regarding their blog posts about our insti having a Gothic past, here is your answer.  
-The 10 PM deadline and Rs.6 for butter. Count the number of letters in ‘Masons’. And now count the number of words in ‘Freemasons’. You get our point?
+1. For a long time now prominent members of the Debating Society have been spotted doing an obscure, elaborate combination of movements right in front of the hobbies club. Though one might think that this is largely due to social rejection as a result of being annoying, it might be what we assume to be some sort of a mandatory entrance ritual to a secret chamber inside. 
 
+2.The main building was unceremoniously renamed the James ThoMASON building earlier this year. We believe that it was for a reason. A very particular reason.
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+3. That squabble of illegible words on the top of what is possibly the most beautiful part of the campus, is a visible evidence to the Gothic sub-culture of IITR. For those who were questioning the Thomso team regarding their blog posts about our insti having a Gothic past, here is your answer.  
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+4. The long-standing 10 PM deadline and Rs.6 for butter. Count the number of letters in ‘Masons’. And now count the number of words in ‘Freemasons’. You get our point?
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+**Update**: After we published this article in the magazine the previous semester, the almost-Masonic administration was quick enough to revise the 10 PM rule to avoid suspicion. So, to all you love-birds out there, you now know who to thank for the change.
 **Disclaimer**: We can assure our readers that Watch Out is not a part of this cult. We have introduced a simple Freemason-detection test as a part of our recruitment process.
 We show the first year students a 100 dollar bill. If we don’t have the bill with us at the end of the interview, we send them to the Finance cell. If they get turned on, we immediately know that we are dealing with the New World order. Any reference to our symbol ‘W’ being referred to as an inverted ‘M’ with the Mason’s symbolic eye on top, is rubbish and a mere coincidence.
 

_posts/2015-02-09-student-exchange-program.md

@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ __EA__: Though it’s an elaborate inter-collegiate programme, the epitome would
 __WONA__: How are the student graded in the semester they have a student exchange? <br />
 __EA__: The credits of that particular semester of the host college are transferred to this institute. However the grades of this semester are not taken into account in the calculation of the final CGPA on graduation. Students ought to ensure that they have gained all the credits specified for the undergraduate or post-graduate programme.
 
-__WONA__: What is the procedure to get a student exchange in our college?  <br />                                                         __EA__: If you visit our website, __iitr.ac.in -> Academics -> Institutional Agreements__. You will find the exhaustive list of all the institutes with whom we have a Memorandum of Undesrtanding(MoU) signed. A Student Exchange Agreement is prerequisite for a student exchange to happen. At the moment we have only 6 such agreements. These institutes give out advertisements specifying the date for the applications to be filed. The application needs to be downloaded from their website, duly filled and submitted to the Dean of alumni affairs and international relations. All the correspondence happens through this office. Of course, you have to apply a semester prior to the semester in which the exchange commences. The deadlines for the applications can be found on the website of each college and they generally fall somewhere in April for the Autumn semester and October for the Spring semester.
+__WONA__: What is the procedure to get a student exchange in our college?  <br />                                                         __EA__: If you visit our website, __iitr.ac.in -> Academics -> Institutional Agreements__. You will find the exhaustive list of all the institutes with whom we have a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) signed. A Student Exchange Agreement is prerequisite for a student exchange to happen. At the moment we have only 6 such agreements. These institutes give out advertisements specifying the date for the applications to be filed. The application needs to be downloaded from their website, duly filled and submitted to the Dean of alumni affairs and international relations. All the correspondence happens through this office. Of course, you have to apply a semester prior to the semester in which the exchange commences. The deadlines for the applications can be found on the website of each college and they generally fall somewhere in April for the Autumn semester and October for the Spring semester.
 
 __WONA__: What all is required to get the student exchange?                                                                  
 __EA__: First and the most essential step is that you need to match the courses of the semester with the help of the departmental coordinator. The courses which are present in the course curriculum of IITR but not in that of the host college have to be opted for in the subsequent semester by the candidate. You also need the approval and the letter of recommendation by the HOD and also an approval from Dean of Academics.