What was practically unthinkable a year ago has become a reality for the women’s hockey team, as this past weekend the squad completed its first ever complete season sweep of No. 5 Harvard University and Dartmouth College, two teams that RPI earned its first regular season program wins earlier this season. With Friday’s thrilling 3-2 overtime victory over the Crimson, and Saturday’s 5-2 thrashing of the Big Green, Rensselaer now sits with a 14-11-6 overall record and 11-5-4 in the ECAC, while Harvard dropped to 16-6-4 overall and 11-6-2 in the league. Dartmouth, last year’s ECAC champion, currently rests in the bottom half of the standings with a 11-13-2 overall record and 8-11-1 in conference play. Earlier this year, the Engineers topped Harvard 4-2 and Dartmouth 2-1, both on the road. Read more...
Yearly Archives: 2010
In an article late last week, Bloomberg BusinessWeek announced that President Shirley Ann Jackson was one of the most highly paid directors in 2008 of the largest 1,000 public companies in the United States. Citing data from Securities and Exchange Commission as compiled by Equilar, Jackson received $1,346,648 as payment for her service on the Boards of Directors of multiple companies, including the Public Services Enterprise Group, NYSE Euronext, Medtronic, FedEx, IBM, and Marathon Oil. Read more...
On Tuesday, the Institute released the final policy regarding housing scholarships and how these funds can or cannot be used off-campus. Though there were some very encouraging decisions by the administration, I find some parts of the policy to be troubling. Read more...
A few weeks ago on January 30, I was just chilling with one of my girlfriends in her dorm room. It was late Saturday night and we were switching between the chick flick Singles and the Miss America pageant. Laughing over something mundane, I turned to answer my cell phone. It was my roommate. She called to tell me that the lower panel of our room window had shattered. I wasn’t supposed to get too worked up; she had already informed our Resident Assistant, and had FIXX insulate the window with a giant piece of styrofoam and duct tape. Read more...
Weekends for me usually involve catching up on homework, e-mails, and trying to get a running start on the coming week. Since this past weekend was longer than normal, I was surprised about how much I had accomplished. I traveled to the Men’s Hockey game at Harvard University (a 5-4 win!), moderated the Society of Women Engineers Quizbowl tournament, and even memorized the digits for 11 factorial (39,916,800). A successful weekend indeed … Read more...
In a dangerous interpretation of sordid case history, activist Supreme Courts and corporate lawyers have appropriated the rights guaranteed to natural people and given them to corporations. The recent Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United v. Federal Election commission case applies the First Amendment right of free speech to allow any corporation to use as much money as they want to influence U.S. elections through campaign ads. This is simply another step in a long history of corporations usurping natural rights. I will not argue here that corporations are undeserving of all of these rights, but merely that the process by which it was accomplished has been undemocratic and risks undermining the very foundation of our nation. Read more...
If you take a look around the RPI campus, which boasts itself with consistent top 10 rankings on The Princeton Review’s “More to Do on Campus” list, you’ll probably notice fewer and fewer student organization posters calling for participation. Before I begin, I would just like to say I have read the Institute Sign Policy and recent “revisions” many times and I’m still baffled at the inconsistencies between policy and actuality this year. Read more...
Lying: I do it, you do it, we all do it. However, can you tell if someone else is lying? Can you tell if someone is hurting but trying to cover it up? Well, according the new Fox television series Lie to Me and the studies of a professor by the name of Paul Eckman, “microexpressions” betray us when we tell lies. A microexpression is a split second involuntary facial expression that briefly reveals the emotion that you are trying to suppress. Although these flashes of hidden expression only happen for a brief moment, they are unmistakable. There are seven universal emotions that reference microexpressions: anger, disgust, sadness, happiness, fear, contempt, and surprise are the common emotions that are expressed similarly by people. According to various studies, the average person lies about three times during any 10 minute conversation. In other words, people lie a lot. So, does the use of microexpressions help you answer questions like: Is my boyfriend/girlfriend unfaithful? Does my professor really dislike me? Is he/she into me? Read more...
In last week’s edition of The Poly, the College Republicans’ editorial piece trumpeted the election of Massachusetts republican Scott Brown and the end of the democrats’ supermajority hold on the senate. Read more...
So I’ll admit, I wasn’t as excited for Genericon XXIII as for last year’s con. This lack of enthusiasm stemmed mostly from the fact that the main guests announced were Echostream, OverClocked Remix, and Uncle Yo—the exact same lineup as last year. And since I don’t exactly have a deep passion for anime, gaming, or LARPing, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do to keep myself entertained. Read more...
Everyone has heard about Troy’s claim to fame. Yes, “Uncle” Sam Wilson was a real person (lived 1766-1854, buried in Oakwood Cemetery in north Troy). And yes, unfortunately, this footnote to history overshadows the rest of Troy’s significant contributions. Read more...
This past Saturday, a bomb dropped on the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center. A musical bomb, that is, and not the negative sort. Read more...
Ever heard of this little document called the United States Constitution? Over the past two centuries it has been making quite a name for itself. It has gone from a document that was not going to get the required votes for ratification to a document that rules all other documents. What does it all mean and how is the average citizen supposed to interpret this powerful document? In years past, one would have to read and understand hundreds upon hundreds of scholarly articles to get an idea as to the intention of the law, but that era is now over. Seth Lipsky’s The Citizen’s Constitution is an annotated guide to the document most Americans hold very dear to their hearts. Read more...
Everyone gets that gushy feeling around Valentine’s Day, whether it is because of a special significant other or because of an overwhelming urge to hurl at the sight of red and pink hearts. Newly-released Valentine’s Day reflects upon what can make a single day of the year either the most magical or most miserable day of one’s life. Read more...
We talk about “giving 110 percent” like it’s a good thing. This is strange, because running an engine at 110 percent will often cause it to fail prematurely. A machine that consistently performs at 99 percent efficiency (and requires a consistently-spaced 1 percent downtime) is far more reliable than one that can be pushed to 110 percent for brief spurts, but then unpredictably breaks down. Read more...
Last week, Sodexo, the campus dining service, welcomed chef Patrick Masson from Toulon, France, as part of the company’s Global Chef program. During his three days at Rensselaer, he prepared meals in both the Commons and Russell Sage dining halls to showcase the “international talent of Sodexo’s culinarians and share their expertise with American students,” according to David Gaul, marketing director for Sodexo. Read more...
After bouncing back from a two-goal deficit to defeat the Harvard University Crimson on Friday, the Engineers could not back up junior Chase Polacek’s natural hat trick in the second period to come away with the win against the Dartmouth College Big Green on Saturday. The win and loss keep RPI in a tie with St. Lawrence University for fourth place in ECAC with a 16-13-3 overall record and a 9-7-2 league mark. Harvard dropped to 7-15-3 overall and 7-8-3 in ECAC play, while Dartmouth improved to 7-17-1 overall and 5-12-1 within the conference. Read more...
The women’s basketball team split a pair of games over the long weekend and lost to Vassar College on Tuesday night in Poughkeepsie. Read more...
A veteran of 119 games in an Engineers uniform, senior Garett Vassel knows a thing or two about playing in the Big Red Freakout!, the most celebrated event on campus. Vassel has had the privilege of playing in the last three matches—against St. Lawrence University, Brown University, and Yale University—and has every intention of suiting up this weekend against the Princeton University Tigers. “I remember being a freshman and hearing a lot of stuff about Freakout! … being told about what it was … hearing about the Freakout! game and wondering what exactly it was,” explained Vassel. “I remember that being one of the games where I was blown away by all the support. Both sides were packed … red on both sides. I remember coming out of the tunnel and looking at all the people, and it being a little more special and there being a notable amount of red everywhere you looked.” Read more...
Heading to the final stretches of the hockey season, there is a certain buzz around campus about one of the most cherished traditions in college hockey: Big Red Freakout! The annual game will be heading into its 33rd season, with the Rensselaer Engineers taking on the Princeton University Tigers. For hockey freshman Marty O’Grady, it’s not a game to be taken lightly. “All I have heard about Freakout! coming to school is that [it] is one of the best games to play in all year,” said the rookie. Read more...