Well, it’s about that time of the year when everything is winding down and here at The Poly, things are the same way. This Sunday, we will see a shift in the Editorial Board and a new Editor in Chief will be elected. Read more...

It’s the start of December in Troy. No one knows what is in store for us, whether it is sunshine or snowstorms. It’s also the beginning of the end; two weeks of classes and then finals and you can check off another semester at RPI. I wouldn’t notch your belt just yet, as it seems the last few weeks will certainly be the busiest. Read more...

In a recent column entry, Ashlee Giacalone ’10 attempts to call readers to participate in government, but on the way she makes several tangential statements which either a) represent warped views of the role of government or b) are demonstrably false. I will focus on a few of these that I feel need to be highlighted. Read more...

A little over a year ago, I wrote an article for this column as an Executive Board member during the tenure of our previous President of the Union Rob Odell ’09. It explained the most important process of the board and, indeed, what the entire Union works through every year: budgeting. While tempted to simply plagiarize my own past work, let me try to explain the system in fresh words. Read more...

To the Editor:

Colleges Against Cancer is a group affiliated with American Cancer Society, whose goals are to promote cancer education, survivorship, advocacy, and volunteerism. RPI’s CAC has participated in several events this semester and would like you to join the future events. CAC participated in the Capital Region’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. This is an exciting day full of events and a 5K walk. At the end of the day, $1,050,000 in funds were donated to the American Cancer Society to help combat breast cancer. In addition, CAC participated in the Community Service Committee’s Halloween Parade here on campus for the Troy community, supplying caramel apples and s’mores. Read more...

To the Editor:

Recently, more than ever before, there have been egregious invasions of our right to retain our personal property on the RPI campus. Robberies of backpacks, laptops, and anything that is not attached to your person have been occurring in record breaking numbers in the last few months. They happen mostly in places we feel most safe, like the Commons Dining Hall, Russell Sage Dining Hall, even right in the classroom! These thieves are so brazen that they have taken a backpack from the back of a chair while the student was sitting there! Read more...

With the success of last year’s Left 4 Dead, which changed the way online games were played, it came as a big surprise that fans were outraged when Valve studios announced the sequel. They had a right to be skeptical initially—the sequel was scheduled to be released exactly one year after the original. Sequels that follow that release pattern tend to be rushed out the door, and they usually don’t offer enough new material to warrant paying full price a year later. Skepticism about this game should be put aside; however, Left 4 Dead 2 offers plenty of new twists to the gameplay of the original and outdoes it in every way possible. Read more...

In 1807, the SS Clermont chuffed up the Hudson—and the entire world gasped in astonishment. The steamboat was the first ever commercially sucessful steam-powered transportation device, forever ending dependence on muscle or wind. Read more...

William Julius Wilson, one of the 19 university professors at Harvard, may be the foremost scholar on urban poverty. Since writing his classics The Declining Significance of Race and The Truly Disadvantaged, Wilson has risen to the pinnacle of American intellectual society. In each of these seminal works, Wilson made novel and persuasive arguments that fundamentally changed the way competent sociologists thought about and used race in their research. Wilson’s latest book, More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City, while less pointed and groundbreaking than these previous works, is a valuable addition to the discourse about urban poverty. Read more...

If a work of fiction is able to confuse me, make me think, make me question, and make me contemplate simple devices like plot, I think it has done its job. Recently, the 1960s hit The Prisoner was remade by the American Movie Classics Company. I am always suspicious of remakes, so I did the sensible thing and watched the original series. If you would like to experience a mind bender, I suggest you do the same. Read more...

Heading into the second half of the season, the women’s hockey team has suffered from its fair share of struggles over the first 18 games of the year. This weekend was no exception as Rensselaer split non-conference play against the Robert Morris University Colonials. After dominating in game one of the series and coming out with a 5-2 win, the Engineers could not repeat the performance, falling by a score of 3-1 the following afternoon. With the win and loss, RPI is now 5-8-4 overall, while RMU holds a similar 5-10-1 record. “It was very frustrating,” said sophomore Alisa Harrison of the split weekend. “We are better than that team, but we did not play at the way we did in Friday night’s game, and it cost us the game.” Read more...

The Rensselaer men’s basketball team got off to a great start on this year’s season. Winning four of its first five games, the squad has shown a promising outlook for the rest of the season as the men prepare to begin their Liberty League matches. Read more...

After topping the Liberty League preseason polls, the women’s basketball team will have to redeem itself after falling in its opening two contests of the year. In two matches last week, the Engineers fell 68-55 against the Northwood University Seahawks in the Salem State Tip-Off on November 20. The following evening, Rensselaer fell to the host Salem State College Vikings in the consolation match by a margin of 69-66. The two losses place RPI 0-2 on the year, while the Vikings are split at 1-1, and the Seahawks, who finished in second place in the tournament, are also 1-1 on the year. Read more...