Book/Erotica5/5 Stars

Bentmagpie, laureate writer of cream of the crop erotic novels such as “Gropes ‘n’ Roses” and “Vanessa’s Revenge,” has now released his coup de grace, “From Bus to Park.” The title, while immediately confusing, gradually leads you into the underlying genius of this tale: it is a tragedy.

Our mystery protagonist is a tragic hero who is supposed to represent the everyday man. While on the bus, the man finds that he turns intangible when making contact with a woman's derriere. Now invisible, his entire being is corrupted by this power, which grants him a full understanding of what women would want out of a bus ride: his dick...

During spring break, Michelle Obama and her two daughters, Malia and Sasha, visited China to emphasize education and opportunities from studying abroad, The New York Times reported. In a speech Obama delivered at Peking University, she talked about how crucial it is for students to communicate with other countries and learn how economies are interconnected. Although 200,000 Chinese students are studying in the United States, only 20,000 American students are studying in China. Obama said the primary reason why students do not take advantage of studying abroad in China is because of expense and fear...

At the March 21 Student Government (SG) meeting, the final three midyear reports were presented.

Nick Cifranic, vice president of SG, discussed events and programs he has helped organize such as the Roast of SG, where students were able to discreetly voice their opinions about the campus. Cifranic also helped organize the career day dry cleaning program which drew in over 120 people. His next project includes visiting Dubai over spring break with Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Heath Boice-Pardee and SG President Paul Darragh in order to hold a conference for international RIT campuses and Student Governments...

“RIT firmly believes that among its goals and responsibilities are the free pursuit of truth and intellectual and moral development of its students... Because the rights of free speech and lawful assembly are fundamental to the democratic process and the academic process, RIT supports the rights of all its members freely to express their views and to protest against actions and opinions with which they disagree, using peaceful and lawful means of dissent.” – RIT Governance Policy C11.0

Policy C11.0 acknowledges that RIT’s responsibility as an institution of higher education is to provide access to the truth and intellectual development, including the right to protest...

In New York City eight people have died and dozens were injured due to a gas explosion on March 19. According to ABC News, the blast occurred only 15 minutes after a report from a neighbor stating they smelled gas...

Practicing upwards to three times a week, building relationships that last a life time and doing it all in the name of slam poetry is RIT’s Poetry Slam Team, who is headed to the national competition in Boulder, Colorado. The team consists of Chris Ketant, a fifth year Software Engineering major, Kwando Opong-Mensah, a first year graduate student in Electrical Engineering, Chris Scott, a fifth year Chemical Engineer, Jjvon Hardware, a fifth year Computer Engineering major, and Michelle Sason, a second year Fine Art Photography major. Coming from different majors and backgrounds, they train rigorously and promote slam to the rest of the RIT community...

Every candidate for office makes promises. In 2008, presidential hopeful Barack Obama promised health care and improved environmental protection: the first happened, the second did not. Last year, SG president and vice presidential hopefuls promised that they would start a bike sharing program, get all teachers to use MyCourses and that classes would be videotaped: the first is set to roll out soon, details of the second are still up in the air and the last turned out to financially unfeasible. This is all part of the process, building up voter support, telling them what they want to hear and wishing that you could change everything you want to...

The center for Media, Arts, Games, Interaction and Creativity (MAGIC) hosted a presentation on consumer data mining and management through private companies by Natasha Singers, a New York Times reporter for the Sunday business section. Singer specializes in writing about the business of consumer data. Her presentation discussed the current state of the consumer data business and its striking similarities to various fictional books on advanced societies.

Singer’s biggest assignment on consumer data began two years ago with her article series titled “You for Sale,” which focused on corporations whose jobs are to collect data on consumers in order to sell them to other companies...

"When you're swimming, you can hear a muffled cheer once in awhile, when you turn your head [out of the water],” [J1] recalled second year Management Information Systems major Eric Lizotte. This cheerful spirit is his favorite part of volunteering for Try a Tri.

This Sunday, March 16, RIT will host its 10th Annual Try a Tri  in the Gordon Field House from 7:30 a.m. to noon...

The Academic Senate meeting on March 6, 2014 covered three main topics: the Smoking Policy, the Strategic Planning Initiative and RIT Policy E7.0.

The Task Force for the Smoking Policy, instated in October 2012, is co-chaired by Assistant Vice President for Student Wellness Donna Rubin and Associate Director for Wellness Michael Stojkovic. It was established as a wellness initiative for RIT. The task force is comprised of students, faculty and staff.

The proposal is set to go before the Institute Council May 7. In preparation, the co-chairs presented the proposed policy to Academic Senate to request their endorsement...

On February 17, RIT Admissions announced that it was closing the Facebook group for RIT’s 2013 freshman class. Citing harassment concerns, a student employee of Undergraduate Admissions removed the regular student administrators and announced plans to delete the page within days. Student reactions were mixed, with some students decrying the move and others supporting it. Others wondered what the move meant for other online student-led Facebook groups.

The Facebook group was officially started by Undergraduate Admissions to provide a common area for finding roommates and getting help with the transition to college life...

Since “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” premiered in 1937, Disney has preached the same message to viewers: meet The One, fall in love and live happily ever after. Cinderella suffered until she was magically made beautiful, met her prince at a party and married him days later. This pattern continued for Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana and Rapunzel. To the impressionable mind of a young girl this sends a huge message.

That’s over 75 years’ worth of girls raised on the same propaganda; generations of young women believing that they have to find a man to be happy...

When I considered leaving RIT housing, the first thing I did was pull up a copy of the RIT Housing Terms and Conditions for the 2013 – 2014 academic year. At no point did I call the Office of Housing Operations; I banked on my ability to interpret the housing contract, which in hindsight was not the best decision. Reading the contract from the beginning, the first section I came upon, section 1.05 “Contract Cancellation Dates” seemed to address my situation perfectly...

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal.”                              -Deccelaeration of Sentiments , Elizabeth Cady Stanton 1848

Clad in their work uniforms, women of all professions—nurses, teachers, homemakers, farmers, and more—marched five thousand strong down Pennsylvania Avenue. Having advanced just a few blocks, their peaceful protest soon turned violent as men blocked the streets shouting at, grabbing and tripping the protesters.

This was the March 3, 1913 Women’s Suffrage Parade...

As of January, 55 percent of Americans own a smartphone, according to the Pew Research center. Concurrently, RIT’s Public Safety released its newest feature of campus safety for students in the form of a smartphone application called TigerSafe on December 7.

TigerSafe is a free downloadable app available on both Android Google Play and iOS App Store. Students sign in with their RIT accounts, allowing them to input any information they think Public Safety would require in case of emergency situations.

“I was tasked with seeing if this was even an option,” recalled Tony Yazback, Investigator for Public Safety...

Album/Comedy

Rating: 3.5/5

"Starbomb," the self-titled debut of a collaboration band between famous YouTube animator Arin "Egoraptor" Hanson and comedy band Ninja Sex Party (NSP), is a rather hilarious romp through the classic eras of gaming that falls short on the flag pole.

The songs that are funny are genuinely a riot but many of the tunes rely on a comedic crutch that is detrimental to the album: an overabundance of dick jokes. Whereas the comedy from NSP tends to rely on clever innuendos or generally surreal but funny situations, “Starbomb” tends to dish out just overtly sexual references with no rhyme or reason...

It took five hours of walking, driving, battery life and all our resources, but finally the Resistance took back the RIT campus.

The Resistance is one of the factions in Ingress, a game developed by Google internal startup Niantic Labs. It can best be described as a real-time augmented reality multiplayer online pervasive game. Its gameplay revolves around your geographical location, with an angled birds-eye perspective resembling Google maps.

The gameplay follows a search and destroy format featuring two factions vying for control of portals...

Chicken covered in red barbeque sauce, crock pots full of pasta and meatballs, a huge lasagna, roasted nuts, hard-boiled eggs and — of course — cupcakes and chocolate. Platters full of food covered every countertop and table.  My aunts were offering me dish after dish, but I couldn't eat anything they had lovingly prepared. My temporary dietary restrictions didn’t allow for any of this food. Or soda. Or milk.

I had gone raw.

For a week, I wanted to experience eating no cooked food, living on a raw food diet. The whole week was a steep learning curve of what foods were and were not allowed: fruits and vegetables were in; bread, peanut butter and milk were out...

Alcohol is woven tightly into the tapestry of virtually every culture on Earth. Deep red wines on the dinner table have become synonymous with France and Italy, while great steins of handcrafted ales bring to mind Germany and Belgium...

Policy C16.0, left untouched for decades, has resurfaced in order to add some changes. C16.0 details the procedures for how smoking is handled on campus. The current version restricts smoking in any indoor area and prohibits smoking within 25 feet of any residential building. The committee overlooking the policy aims to make stricter changes for a potentially healthier RIT.

The policy change was most recently presented to Student Government (SG) on January 31...

Pluvial (adj): Rainy or related to rain.

Sentence: After the dreaded pluvial weather persisted for a solid month, Kate decided to transfer.

“Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, ‘It might have been.’” –Kurt Vonnegut, “Cat’s Cradle”

There is an all-girl cover band of Led Zeppelin called Lez Zeppelin. Founded in 2004, they were called the leading force in all female cover bands and even recorded their first album with one-time Led Zeppelin recording engineer Eddie Kramer.

The Super Soaker was invented by NASA engineer Lonnie Johnson...

Released in February, “A Journey Too Far” is the fifth LP by Nostalgia77. The album has a distinctive big-band sound, while combining other genres such as swing and reggae, and features horns, snare and soft female vocals.

“A Journey Too Far” offers very easy listening, so much so that the music quickly becomes boring, the simple jazz reminiscent of mall music.

Exceptions to the album’s base style are “An Angel With No Halo” and “Like Dark To Light”. Both tracks offer a mystic feeling by using acoustic guitar, violin, rolling cymbal and piano...

At the February 28 Student Government (SG) meeting, the general manager of the Grace Watson dining hall gave a presentation on its current and future suitability efforts. Various senators also presented their mid-year reports and progress updates.

Scott Vadney, general manager of the Grace Watson dining hall, stated that with little way to change the physical layout, he aims to improve operations and food venues for sustainability goals.

 One of the new stations, called Simply Eats (previously proposed as Solutions), targets students with allergies or vegan preferences...

Overall Russia’s expenditure into the Olympics cost the nation $51 billion dollars in investments, according to CBS news...

As a fan of “The Daily Show,” I have seen John Oliver’s work before. I watched his skits and appreciated his sense of humor, and honestly, I worried that his live show at Freeze Fest would be no different...

On February 9, five of RIT’s photography professors hosted the twenty-ninth annual Big Shot, an organized photo shoot where volunteers bring flashlights to illuminate High Falls in downtown Rochester. The goal was for students and community members to bring flashlights, light them simultaneously and light up High Falls. Above the Falls was the CSX railroad, who participated in the photo shoot by bringing a train from their world headquarters in Jacksonville, Fla. 650 volunteers held up their flashlights in 19 degrees Fahrenheit to produce a successful photograph...

This year’s Tora-Con is set to be bigger than ever, in celebration of the event’s 10-year anniversary. Tora-Con is RIT’s major anime and Japanese culture convention, put on by the Anime and Cosplay clubs. With a multitude of new events planned, Tora-Con’s organizers believe this year will be record-breaking in terms of attendance.

According to Jan Dvorak, , the Tora-Con chair,  Tora-Con’s audience consists of RIT’s anime fans, as well as anime fans from Rochester and surrounding areas. Surprisingly, past Tora-Cons have been visited by a large number of high school students, which is one reason why the event’s organizer have made it as family-friendly as possible...

Recent RIT alumnus Steve Bodnar presented in the Xerox auditorium on February 12. He received his undergraduate degree in English/Journalism from the University of New Hampshire and came to RIT after working for a few years in his field to gain a master’s degree in Communication & Media Technologies in 2012. The purpose of his presentation was to talk about his experience doing public relations for non-profit or low-profit. He also talked about the change in expectations communications jobs have undergone since his time as an undergraduate and how the current generation of communications students can adapt...

At the February 14 Institute Council meeting RIT’s budget for next year was broken down, the 10 year strategic plan was looked over, the 2015-16 school year calendar was evaluated and approved and progress of a new online class system was evaluated.

James Watter, Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration, presented next year’s budget for the Institute. The numbers he presented are researched projections, but the number of incoming students is necessary for a more concrete estimate because that information could increase or decrease the budget. Currently, it is projected that tuition will increase by approximately 3.9 percent for new students...