This may come as a surprise given my current position on this paper, but I despise writing. Ready for another surprise? One of the reasons I applied to Rensselaer was because they didn’t require any supplemental essays. So isn’t it ironic that I’m here now, voluntarily writing two or more articles a week for a weekly newspaper? Read more...

Over spring break I went to some cool places and saw some cool things, and I’d like to share them with you in my Spring Break review. Read more...

The pinnacle of the indoor track and field season is the national championship meet. This year, six determined Rensselaer student-athletes earned the opportunity to compete among fellow driven runners and throwers from across the country. Reaching the National Collegiate Athletics Association Division III Indoor Track & Field Championship Meet is the ultimate reward for indoor athletes from Division III schools everywhere in the nation, serving as the perfect environment for these athletes to exhibit the skill they have gained from the conditioning and training leading up to the meet. This year, the meet was held in Grinnell, IA, on Friday, March 11, and Saturday, March 12. Read more...

On March 21, the International Criminal Court made headlines after reaching a verdict on rebel leader and former Vice President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Jean-Pierre Bemba in The Hague, Netherlands. The charges stem from Bemba’s response to a 2002 attempted coup, where he garnered the support to create a group of militants known as The Movement for the Liberation of Congo in an attempt to staunch any further political uprising. As the leader of the MLC, Bemba was later offered entry into neighboring Central African Republic in an attempt to staunch an overthrow of Central African Republic government. Bemba has been found guilty of war crimes in response to his refusal to prevent MLC militants from sexually abusing civilians within the borders of the Central African Republic. Read more...

The race for the Presidency of the United States is certainly the number one topic on most people’s minds right now. At this point, the race is still open and it is still a competition to see who will have enough delegates to become the nominees of either party. The winner of the election stands to become one of the most powerful people in the world. In fact, the President is one of the few true movers and shakers of the world whose legacy will be felt a long time into the future. Suffice it to say, the U.S. Presidential election is the most important aspect of the political process that most Americans will ever have the chance to participate in. Despite the fact that the President is not directly elected by popular vote, but rather by the Electoral College, the votes of the people strongly influence how that process plays out. Read more...

Last Friday saw the release of the new season of one of Netflix’s flagship Intellectual Properties, Daredevil. Not only that, but it also brings new characters to the fold—the Punisher and Elektra. Strangely enough, 10 years ago, this would be an unwanted crossover between lukewarmly received superhero movies. While today, it’s not only crowd-pleasing, but a well reviewed series that will be building into a larger superhero universe, Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Defenders. So, does this second season live up to the hype, making up for the mistakes of its early 2000 predecessors? Read more...

Sophomores Shanny Lin, Danielle Sauve, and senior Maddie Miller represented RPI in Greensboro, N.C. during the four days of competition at the National Collegiate Athletics Association Division III Swimming & Diving Championship Meet. Read more...

There is a Town Hall Meeting on March 30 (this coming Wednesday) at 3 pm in the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center. If you are a student, you need to go. Read more...

How could someone possibly follow up the Harlem Shake? We all remember that flash-in-the-pan internet meme. The first 20 seconds or so of the song “Harlem Shake” played, while one person danced in the midst of others doing regular activities. At the first drop, the previously uninteresting bystanders would begin dancing in ridiculous costumes and movements. Thousands upon thousands of people uploaded their version of the trend onto YouTube. At its peak in early February 2013, over 4,000 Harlem Shake videos were uploaded daily. As a result, the song peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. In fact, the unexpected success of Harlem Shake prompted a change in how they consider online streams for their rankings. Read more...

Baseball spent last week’s Spring Break in Florida for the Russmatt Central Florida Invitational, where the Engineers faced seven teams over the course of the week. While some games were closer than others, the Engineers ultimately failed to secure a win during the week. Read more...

Dear Poly,

It will come as no surprise to students, but the most important minority in the upcoming presidential election could be university students. If, collectively, they demand the end of the present student loan system (with no bankruptcy option), students can control who is elected. Read more...

As the opener of the 52nd New York Film Festival, director David Fincher’s film adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl achieved immediate critical success on the heels of its threatening plot and careful acting. As a film adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s blockbuster novel of the same name, Fincher managed to appeal to the same sense of omniscience that drove the novel to the tops of charts, but also added careful imagery and dramatic appeal to the piece. Rolling Stone magazine described the film as “the date-night movie of the decade for couples who dream of destroying one another” in reference to the film’s dark plot and careful criticism of romance. Read more...

After nabbing the lead 1:10 into play last Saturday, March 12, at the East Campus Athletic Village Stadium, Rochester Institute of Technology maintained their advantage over the Engineers throughout the afternoon to win 12-8. However, Rensselaer rebounded the following Thursday during Spring Break when they traveled to Southern California to face Whittier College. They walloped the Poets 17-9. Read more...

This year’s Spring Break saw exotic destinations for both the men’s and women’s tennis teams, with the men’s team visiting Southern California and the women’s team visiting central Florida for three matches each. Read more...

Every year, The Polytechnic produces a special Grand Marshal Week issue that provides information about the week’s festivities and gives the opportunity for candidates for student government offices to present themselves to the student body. Inclusion in this special issue is completely voluntary, although we feel that it is a valuable and efficient way to reach a large number of voters, and we encourage all candidates to take advantage of it. The special issue will be published and distributed around campus on Monday, April 11, 2016. Read more...

All parts of the Mueller Center were re-opened to the Rensselaer community on Wednesday, March 2, 2016 and have been operating as normal since that date. The initial sprinkler pipe burst was discovered on Monday, February 15, and that discovery triggered an immediate closing of the building until the pipe and water damage could be repaired. By the time the pipe burst was discovered, the main doors to the building had about half an inch of ice frozen to them, according to Director of the Mueller Center Steve Allard. Read more...

Like any typical Thursday, I was sitting in my Web Science Systems Development lab session. While gleefully attempting to work on the lab assignment for the week, I picked up on a couple students sitting at another table, talking about their favorite technologies, tools, services, methods, and comparing each other’s development preferences. As the two hour lab went on, each got more and more frustrated with the other, throwing retorts that included phrases like, “Oh yeah? Well, my favorite tool is [x]. It’s waaaay better than what you’re doing;” “You should use [some experimental technology y] and [complete some crazy, convoluted process in order to make it compatible with mainstream services];” and—my personal favorite—“Wow, you’re still doing that? That hasn’t been cool since, like, 2014.” It was quite entertaining, to say the least. Read more...

“A sense of convention.”

As we made our steep journey back to the Burdett Avenue Residence Hall after attending the first wave of Genericon, I asked Tiffany what her favorite part of the night had been. Interestingly, her answer didn’t involve some specific panel or encounter, but an all-encompassing sensation that she could only describe as that of “convention.” Tiffany, a seasoned con-goer, was a stark contrast to me, a first-time attendee. Acting as my guide, she walked me through the three-day experience, helping me to understand this “sense of convention” for myself. Read more...

This past weekend, the Engineers began their quest for an ECAC Hockey championship with a best-of-three home stand against Brown University. The Engineers made quick work of the Brown Bears, disposing of them in just two games. Read more...