I find it difficult to easily explain this show, how it works, and its classification. It’s part documentary, parody, and reality TV show, but most importantly, at its core, the most awkward and hilarious television show I’ve seen. Most would find that hard to believe, but I’ve sat through both the American and UK versions of The Office, and I can easily say, this has better awkward humor. To get to the core of my reasoning, I’ll have to explain it a bit more. Read more...

On Saturday, September 6, RPI field hockey hosted Mount Holyoke in its first home game of the season. During the opening 10 minutes of the contest, the Engineers held off a persistent Lyon attack. Holyoke fired four shots off of penalty corners, one that was saved skillfully by Rensselaer freshman goalie Hilary Fiorentino ’18, and another that was blocked by an RPI defender. Read more...

On Monday, September 8, the Student Senate convened at their weekly meeting to discuss the goings-on at RPI and how they, the student’s elected representatives, should take action. The meeting immediately began with a motion to reestablish the Community Relations Committee. This committee has not been in session since Grand Marshal Lee ’12, but according to Morgan Schweitzer ’16, there has been resurgence by the RPI community. Schweitzer took the floor to explain the history behind this project and general information about its purpose. Read more...

With this year’s long list of free agent signings and trades, the balance of power in the National Basketball Association has shifted dramatically. Lebron James decided to return home by re-signing with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavs then added 19 point-per-game, 12 rebound-per-game superstar Kevin Love in a three-team trade which sent the Cavs most recent number one pick, Andrew Wiggins of Kansas, to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Chicago Bulls signed versatile big man Pau Gasol to add to their already highly talented team. Though not a free agent signing, it is also important to note that Derrick Rose has healed well and made a successful return to competitive basketball in the International Basketball Federation World Cup this summer. His value to the Bulls cannot be understated. Without Rose, the Bulls are an average playoff team. With him, they are a title contender. Read more...

Bicycles for Humanity is a pure grassroots movement that was started eight years ago by a couple trying to solve the problem in Namibia of healthcare workers with AIDS, having to walk to take care of those sicker than themselves. Now, B4H comprises over 50 chapters, and has sent 75,000 bicycles to developing parts of Africa. These bicycles are sent to empower people in the developing world by helping solve the basic problem of mobility. A bicycle allows a healthcare worker to visit four to five times the number of patients in a day. It allows for mothers to bring drinking water home and bring her goods to market, and aids children in traveling to school. Bikes can cut travel time from one hour to 20 minutes, and can allow people to carry four times more weight. Best of all—the majority of these bikes were otherwise destined to rust in a landfill. Each year, over 10 million usable bikes make it to the landfill. Read more...

This past Thursday, President of the Union Erin Amarello ’15 conducted this year’s first Executive Board meeting. Topics on the agenda included: funding for the Women’s Golf Club, budgeting policies and guidelines for clubs (particularly where travel costs and food budgets were concerned), and the new Rensselaer Union website. The meeting concluded with Joe Cassidy’s director report and the PU’s final remarks. Read more...

Hello RPI. This week, the Student Senate had the pleasure of hosting Erin Pihlaja, executive director of the Troy Business Improvement District, and Cary Dresher, associate dean of the off campus commons. Both Pihlaja and Dresher were friendly speakers, and learning about all the opportunities that exist really spoke to the level of growth our community has seen, and how great a weekend destination Troy can be for Rensselaer students. Read more...

The Ebola Virus Disease outbreak began in Guinea in December 2013. Having spread to Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal, and Nigeria, the Ebola outbreak has so far around 1,850 deaths confirmed. Symptoms of the disease include fatigue, headaches, seizures, internal bleeding, and death. There are currently no vaccines for the Ebola virus. Treatment, which may increase the chance of survival, for the disease involves preventing dehydration, balancing body salts, maintaining oxygen status, blood pressure, and treating other infections should they occur. The chance of someone contracting the infection, however, is reduced because the symptoms occur very quickly; those infected would be too sick to board a plane going overseas. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recently reported that the world is losing the battle against Ebola. Read more...

Hey RPI!

I hope that everyone enjoyed the opening weekend of football! It is an exciting time for sports, both on- and off-campus. Football opened their season successfully with a win over Norwich University 29-9, men’s and women’s cross country placed second in Classic, and our men’s soccer team has remained un deleted ending their last game in a draw with State University of New York at Brockport. Get out there and continue to cheer on your friends and classmates this fall; all schedules can be found at http://www.rpiathletics.com. Also, while yesterday was the culmination of Hockey Line, the celebration at the Houston Field House was a blast. If you couldn’t attend, it was not your last chance to purchase season tickets. If you and your friends still want to cheer on the Engineers all season long, you can still go purchase tickets up at the Houston Field House from 10 am–3 pm. Read more...

The Graduate Student Council will be having a Town Hall meeting on Wednesday, September 10 at 5 pm in DCC 337. We invite all graduate students to participate and offer suggestions to what programming and needs our student body has. Help us, help you! Our guest speaker will be Dean Dunn from the Office of Graduate Education. He will be available to specifically address concerns regarding the graduate fee imposed this year. This is your chance to express how you feel, give feedback, and contribute to the conversation. Light refreshments will be served; we hope to see you there! Read more...

The week before school started, a Reddit post titled “Save Our Swipes—Hospitality says no more swiping other people in” reported that, “RAs were told this week that people are no longer allowed to swipe other people in on their meal plan,” regardless of whether they were on the meal plan or not. This decision however was reversed several days later, meaning that students can swipe guests in as they have in the past. Many students raised an outcry. Grand Marshal Kyle Keraga ’15 met with Hospitality Services to discuss these concerns. Based on student feedback, Hospitality decided to push back changes, and agreed to work with the Student Senate towards a compromise. Read more...

College is a time for stepping out of your comfort zone and trying new things. The Poly encourages students to make the most of their college experience by getting involved in campus life. However, this advice does not only apply to freshmen. Most returning students probably have activities they enjoy and plan on participating in again this school year, but the start of a new school year is a great opportunity to branch out and try something different. Read more...

I have two purposes to this review of a film a full month after its initial release, those are: one, to remind all those who saw it of just how incredible it is, and two, convince anyone on this planet who has yet to see it to drop whatever they are doing, and run, not walk, to the nearest theater to see Guardians of the Galaxy. Read more...

President of the Union Erin Amarello ’15 seeks to apply her “unique approach and point of view” to become a great President of the Union. She seeks to brand herself as a people’s president; her goal is to make the Union more accessible to more students. “It’s your money!” she exclaimed. In her selection of the current Executive Board of the Union, she attempted to create as diverse an E-board as possible. Her goal was to change the culture of student governance at RPI. She noticed that the Student Government members tend to form a closed culture and be less diverse than the student body they represent. Her aim is such that everyone who comes to the E-board will have someone on the board they can relate to. Read more...

According to http://www.dictionary.com, the definition of feminism is the following: “the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men.” The key word in that definition is equal. The majority of self-proclaimed “feminists” who believe that women are entitled to superiority over men, and those who are against feminism are the ones that get publicity. Think of it this way: do you think that the Tea Party’s ideas represent the entire Republican Party? Probably not, but the Tea Party gets a lot of media attention because of their radical actions. It’s the same idea with feminism. Modern feminists like myself, who just want to feel as though we are actually equal to men, aren’t given the time of day so that people can truly understand why we need feminism in our society. Read more...

Recently, I stumbled upon the excellent 2012 anime series Psycho-Pass. This series takes place in the year 2113, in an enormous Mega-City One style urban sprawl which presumably grew out of the Tokyo metropolitan area. The citizens of this city live an idyllic life virtually free from stress and worry. All of their needs are managed by a distributed supercomputer known as the Sibyl System. Where they’ll work, how their food is grown, and even public safety is all overseen by this network. Crime has been all but eradicated thanks to a revolutionary technology known as the “cymatic scan.” Sensors performing cymatic scans can observe the inner workings of the brain from a distance. While it’s not sophisticated enough to read thoughts, it can determine personality traits, emotions, and stress levels. The data from these cymatic scans are used to form a running evaluation of one’s mental health, the eponymous “Psycho-Pass.” Psycho-Passes are color-coded; those with light colors are at the peak of mental health, while those with dark and clouded Psycho-passes will be recommended to seek emergency therapy, or, if they are deemed to pose a threat to themselves and others, are labeled “latent criminals” and taken to an isolation facility to protect society at large. Read more...

The first day of September signaled not only a day off for faculty, staff, and students, but also another meeting for RPI’s Student Senate. The Senate was able to cover presentations from several of the Senators about a variety of topics dealing with student life at RPI. A plan to work more closely with the Hospitality Services was developed as well as the regulations for the elections for the Class of 2018. Read more...

Welcome to RPI, Class of 2018! Certainly you’ve already heard of terms like “Ratio-Induced Bitch Syndrome.” Certainly you’ve already heard a guy complain about the lack of girls. I want to address our gender issues now and implore you to think about how you act and what you say. This is a tough subject, and one I’ve been scared to touch before, but I think it’s important. Read more...

Personally, I’m a bit mixed about this latest season of The Legend of Korra. I’ll preface this by saying how much I disliked the previous season, but that’s not the issue. The problem is how Nickelodeon handled the season, announcing it three weeks prior to release, rushing the episodes by putting out multiple at a time, then pulling them off television and publishing them online. The future is grim for Korra, which is disappointing after witnessing its strongest season yet. Read more...