On Campus - Tuesday, July 21, 2009 20:45 - 4 Comments
Abu Dhabi’s Local Paper Looks at NYUAD From Deep Within John Sexton’s Psyche
The National, an English language paper in Abu Dhabi, published a huge, fascinating piece last Friday about NYU Abu Dhabi. John Gravois seemed to tackle the story with the idea that in order to understand the motivation and scale of the project, you have to get into the mind of the man behind it all – John Sexton, NYU’s president.
“With Sexton, digressions quickly metastasise into ideas, ideas into schemes, and schemes into rosters of personnel,” Gravois writes, and this already explains a lot, conceptually, about NYUAD. The piece describes Sexton’s manic devotion to a girl’s debate club he founded (to the detriment of his own school work), the class that he flew to Abu Dhabi to teach every other week, and some of the controversies surrounding the project. What it doesn’t tell us, however, is how the locals feel about NYUAD.
As current students, it can be difficult to appreciate what Sexton is trying to do for the university, because as much as we would like him to, he’s not thinking about us individually. Rather, he’s thinking about the school as a whole, and not even right now, but in the future. Regardless, it’s hard not to gain a new kind of appreciation for the man after reading the piece.
Here is the full thing, but we’ve chosen some choice quotes after the jump.
Entertainment - Friday, May 8, 2009 12:38 - 1 Comment
Mystery of Time and Space
Mystery of Time and Space is probably the grandfather of point and click games, which are the best kind of online games as far as I’m concerned. Basically, you are trying to escape from a room or building, and you have to click around and solve puzzles in order to do so. For example, you can click on rugs and things to find keys, which will allow you to open certain cupboards to find other items to help you get out. There’s a lot of logic involved, but it’s absurdly addicting. If you play this, be prepared to goodbye to that A on your Con West final. So worth it.
Entertainment - Tuesday, May 5, 2009 10:19 - 6 Comments
Pandemic 2 – Best or Worst Possible Game Right Now?
It’s finals week, which means we’ll be posting YouTube videos, games, and all sorts of other distracting material. To start off, here’s a game that can take up hours of your day and teach you current events and science at the same time: Pandemic 2.
Your goal is to evolve a disease that will kill every person on the planet, and your enemy is the government, who is trying to stop you. Hint: choose symptoms that are very subtle, because if people start vomiting and and suffering necrosis, the government will close everything down. Also, Madagascar is almost impossible.
Good luck!
Featured, On Campus - Thursday, April 30, 2009 10:23 - 24 Comments
The Eucleian Society Disrupts Class With Beepers
In the middle of my final Intermediate Microeconomics lecture this morning, three beepers went off from the front corner of the room, hidden in the stereo system and a piano. The beepers were attached to a piece of paper, undoubtedly meant to be read out loud by a curious professor. Mine was more interested in talking about game theory, so the whole thing went largely ignored, except for the sounds of exasperated “Ugh, Take Back NYU” sighs from across the room.
But it turns out that this wasn’t another TBNYU! stunt – the note was signed by “The Eucleian Society,” an NYU secret society with a literary bent. Apparently, “NYU has its secrets, too” is one of its catchphrases. It’s unclear as to what the group actually does, as well as what they were trying to accomplish with the beepers, but it’s lucky for them that we weren’t taking a final.
Full text of the message after the jump.
On Campus - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 19:58 - 0 Comments
Got The Swine Flu? Party It Up
There’s a cute little Facebook event going around titled “Swine Flu Convention – If you got it, flaunt it.” Looks like it’s invite-only, so you’ll have to prove your worthiness to attend. Any guesses as to when this won’t be funny anymore?
Description is as follows:
A lot of negative media has begun surrounding what is known in America as Swine Flu. News anchors and bloggers alike have been viciously attacking this condition, pointing out solely the unfavorable aspects, such as death.
What the reports fail to mention, however, is that it also produces a need to dance til your pants fall off.
If you recently discovered that you have Swine Flu, have known for years, have had sexual relations at least 4 times with someone who has or just want to feel included, then this convention is for you.
Be yourself. Have Swine Flu. Kiss someone with Swine Flu. Eat sandwiches with muenster cheese and thinly sliced tomatos. Fuck it.
Photo: Flickr courtesy of xirzon
Entertainment - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 15:03 - 4 Comments
“Gossip Girl” Tactfully Portrays NYU
Last night’s “Gossip Girl” officially confirmed Blair Waldorf’s inevitable attendance at NYU after doing incredibly terrible things and getting kicked out of Yale. The reason she’s going to NYU is obvious – they want to keep them all in the city for the next season – but it’s interesting to see the ways in which the producers decide to portray NYU, because the elitist, non-subway-taking Blair would never choose to go here herself. But at the same time, they don’t want to make school officials angry by being too insulting of our non-Ivy status.
Case in point, a tweet from NYU Financial Aid Counselor Paolo Lim, shown above.
The compliment refers to when Dan, who is running into financial problems for Yale, suggests that he could go to a “great school” like NYU, because “they offer financial aid.” (Best joke of the episode by far.)
But they compromise by making fun of NYU’s hipsterdom, as Blair complains about ironic facial hair. And no one can argue that we don’t have a lot of that.
City - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 10:54 - 12 Comments
Criteria For NYC’s “Hottest” College Kids: Slutty And Awkward
If you remember the announcement from awhile back that The College Gossip Chronicles was searching for the 50 hottest students in the city, you will probably not be surprised to hear that, with a couple exceptions, the results are pretty unattractive.
See for yourself here. From these pictures, we can see that what it takes to be the hottest kid in New York City is having more makeup than clothes.
The best part of the whole thing is that they say things like “My legs are hard and muscular from dancing and my lips are big and I know how to use them,” and “I’ve been doing ab workouts since I saw Will Smith in ‘Bad Boys’ running with his button-down shirt unbuttoned. It was inspiring.”
NYU is represented by Danielle Simons, pictured here on the left.
Photo from the New York Post
On Campus - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 0:50 - 0 Comments
The Swine Flu Does A Good Deed
Some people’s finals were cancelled to save English majors from the swine flu.
NYU making the SAT I non-mandatory will likely increase minority numbers on campus. (Or, more students will apply and NYU will still only accept the ones that have 2100+, sneakily lowering the acceptance rate.)
City, On Campus, On-Campus Developing - Tuesday, April 21, 2009 12:32 - 3 Comments
Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s
It’s Ben & Jerry’s 31st birthday, also known as Free Cone Day. From noon to 8 pm today, run by your nearest Ben & Jerry’s to grab a free scoop in a flavor of your choice.
The closest location is at 3rd Ave and 10th St. Here’s a map of the Ben & Jerry’s locations in NYC after the jump:
On Campus - Tuesday, April 21, 2009 10:46 - 1 Comment
NYU Pretends to Care Less About SAT Scores
Unfair: NYU applicants are no longer required to submit SAT I results, though something tells me that it’s still a good idea.
Grad students protest in Bobst, a high school senior says “They’re saying that tuition rates are going up by 60 percent.” Hmm?
