Released in the United States on December 9, the musical drama La La Land saw almost immediate success for its clever and insightful reimagining of vintage musicals for the modern age. The film took the Venice Film Festival by storm at the end of August, and was widely considered by critics to be on this year’s most anticipated list. Owen Gleiberman of Variety described the film as “the most audacious big-screen musical in a long time, and—irony of ironies—that’s because it’s the most traditional.” Through the most aggressive form of retrograding, La La Land proves itself unique in the scope of modern cinema. Read more...

“No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here!” was one chant among many that brought over two hundred people together on Wednesday, February 1, for a march supporting international students in light of President Donald Trump’s recent immigration ban (https://poly.rpi.edu/s/hlxhv). The march centered around the idea of making everyone feel welcome at RPI—especially international students, immigrants, and those unhappy with recent events. Read more...

Dean Curt Breneman of the Rensselaer School of Science announced several key strategic initiatives during the spring town meeting that will be culminated over the coming years while celebrating recent successes in scientific research and expansions within the School of Science. Read more...

The interconnectedness of our modern society is an amazing and beautiful thing to behold. Many processes mesh to bring us modern technologies. My favorite example of this, and the reason why I want to be an aeronautical engineer, is the plane. Read more...

Last Saturday, instead of staying home and doing Data Structures like most of my classmates, I went out and about to explore the world of RPI Ballroom. I had first heard about this event a week before, when I missed their first social dance and was scrambling to find their next one. This led me to arriving to Academy Hall at 7 pm, with nothing but a lack of dancing experience and five dollars to my name. After paying the toll and gaining admission—gaining access to a selection of snacks—I was ushered into the Academy Hall Auditorium for a brief lesson on the waltz. Read more...

Men’s hockey saw a mildly successful weekend this past week, losing their Friday game 2–1 against Saint Lawrence University, but coming back on Saturday to beat Clarkson University 2–1. Read more...

Editor’s Note: This article contains explicit language. Reader discretion is advised. Read more...

Beginning the week of October 23, I was sitting around in the wonderful Cary Residence Hall. I was thinking, “let’s start something new for everyone who lives here.” Let’s make posters that ask a random question or prompt each week. Then we’ll tape it into the corner of where the girls’ wing meets the guys’ wing. Read more...

Last year, I faced a terrible conundrum, which no one should have the horror of facing: I was out of backlogged podcast episodes to listen to. Since I’m fairly new to this whole podcast thing, I’m only following a handful of podcasts. With months—and sometimes years—of prior content to listen to on these podcasts, the distress of waiting for new episodes never crossed my mind. So you can imagine my horror as I realized the release date of the latest episode of The Adventure Zone was uncomfortably close to the current date. But, since it was the end of the semester, I decided to push that problem off until the new year. Just like many other school-related problems. Read more...

This past Friday, the women’s hockey team lost to third-ranked Clarkson University. The game began with a scoreless period, in which sophomore goalie Lovisa Selander rejected all 14 shots. The Golden Knights ended the tie with two goals in the second period. Read more...

On December 31, Grand Marshal Paul Ilori ’17 opened the Student Senate meeting with committee reports. Those included a discussion led by Chair of the Hospitality Services Advisory Committee Jenna Freedberg ’18 who reviewed the committee’s current objectives including reviewing the online petition “Do Not Extend Sodexo’s Contract,” which has garnered 387 signatures since its inception two years ago. Read more...

Having lived outside the US for nine years before coming to RPI, I wasn’t really ready for the media maelstrom called the 2016 Presidential Election. While my friends and I followed the news—my parents normally would go through the process of scheduling times to go into the embassy to send in their absentee ballots—there’s a totally different level of fanfare, drama, and coverage that surrounds you when you’re actually in the States. And I definitely am not one of the people who predicted one, let alone all, of the different twists and turns that took place over the course of this election cycle. Read more...

More than a year ago, I wrote a review on the fresh release of Fallout 4. I want to make it clear, I absolutely loved the game when it first came out. There was so much potential, so much possibility in Fallout 4 over Fallout 3 and New Vegas. But after a couple of months, I guess I just ran the game out of content. Even with the downloadable content, it just wasn’t enough. So now, after buying a cool NVIDIA GTX 1070, I’ve bumped everything to ultra and installed a ton of mods, giving me probably another hundred or so hours of fresh gameplay. But before I go into the mods, let’s touch on why it all became stale. Read more...

This past Saturday, Rensselaer's men's and women's swimming and diving teams had their last dual meet of the season against the Hamilton College Continentals. Both teams conquered the Continentals with the women at a score of 179.50-113.50 and the men at 178-113. The men are finishing their regular season undefeated with a record of 8-0 and the women finishing with a 7-1 record, falling only to Ithaca College. Read more...

Two months before the Super Bowl, during week 13 of the regular season, was the last time either of the National Football League’s two finalists lost. That week, the Atlanta Falcons lost by one to the eventual American Football Conference West division winners, the Kansas City Chiefs. Since then, Atlanta has won six straight games, its last of which was a rout of the previously red-hot Green Bay Packers in the National Football Conference Championship Game on Sunday, January 22. That being said, they are not the betting favorite to win the Super Bowl–the AFC champions of the New England Patriots are. New England has even more momentum than the Falcons. Since losing to the Seattle Seahawks in week 10 of the regular season, the Pats have won nine games in a row by an average of more than 16 points. Last week’s AFC Championship Game was perhaps New England’s finest performance of the season as quarterback Tom Brady threw for 384 yards and three touchdowns. The Patriots’ defense stifled the Pittsburgh Steelers potent, star-studded offensive attack, holding them to just 17 points and taking the ball from them twice. These two teams certainly proved last weekend that they are without a doubt the best two in the league. The question is, will the Patriots dynasty earn a fifth championship in the last 16 seasons and add further evidence to the argument that it is the greatest ever, or will the Atlanta Falcons, in their first Super Bowl in nineteen years, walk away with their first Lombardi Trophy? Read more...

The Rensselaer Union Executive Board had two main topics of discussion for its meeting last Thursday: changes to the Union’s email system and purchase of a new ID scanner for the Pub. Read more...

On Friday, January 27, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States. The order prohibits refugees from entering the U.S. for the next 120 days, and it disallows nationals of seven majority Muslim countries—Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen—from entering the U.S. for a 90-day period. Read more...

Hello RPI! Happy third week of classes! I have a few updates and things to share from the Executive Board of the Rensselaer Union. This weekend, we held a club officer training workshop in the Union; at the E-Board meeting last week we replaced the ID scanner for the Clubhouse Pub, approved new email lists for clubs, and began planning for future projects in the Union. Read more...

I won’t lie, I’m in a fraternity and I am sick and tired of being judged. I’m tired of being asked if I consume massive amounts of alcohol on the weekends or if I’ve ever committed sexual violence. I’m tired of people not believing that I’ve never smoked weed, gone on an acid trip, or taken pills to help myself study. I’m tired of potential employers asking questions about whether I frequent kegs on the weekends or cheat on my exams, instead of asking about my internships with Fortune 500 companies and data startups. Read more...