Category Archives: 04 (April) 2014

The April 2014 Issue of Frankly Speaking.

Education Synergy – A Merger

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On March 18th, while most of you were away, Babson College and Olin College signed an agreement detailing the acquisition of Olin College by Babson College. Under the new arrangement, Olin College’s official name will be the Olin Center for Engineering and Entrepreneurship [1].

Olin has had difficulty paying off the debt it acquired from the construction of an entire school[2]. To mitigate the damage endured by the fund, the full-tuition scholarship has been replaced with a half-tuition scholarship, and spending on post-its has dropped. Funds were so short last year, Olin leased parcel B out to the local delinquents to grow bud. Unfortunately, these efforts have not been enough.

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The Value of Marriage

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When I read Kai Austin’s article Argument Against Marriage, I realized that I had found my new trench. See, I am Catholic, and Catholics have gotten quite adept at falling short in societal debates about marriage and sex. In the last sixty years alone we have been the losing interlocutors regarding contraception, divorce, pre-marital sex, and abortion. Now, as we rapidly lose ground on same-sex marriage, I needed a new trench, a new line to hold, and Kai gave it to me: I am not yet ready to give up on the value of marriage.

Before I explain myself, though, I should make my relative bias clear: not only am I Catholic, I am training to be a Catholic priest. Among other things, this means that I will never get married. Priests are asked to forego personal marriage in order to give themselves in complete service to the Church. Some may think that my swearing off of marriage disqualifies me from defending marriage, but I think of it as a scientific bonus – I am an outside observer who can comment on the system without reducing it to my own experience. And what are my observations? That marriage is ultimately a life of love-as-service and that society has an important interest in promoting and protecting such an institution.

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God, Singleness and Lust?

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A Response to “Arguments Against Marriage”

In Argument Against Marriage, the author effectively claims that the Bible teaches that singleness is superior to marriage. I would like to make a few clarifying points, with the disclaimer that there is a large diversity of interpretations of the Bible within Christendom and, while I may think mine is correct, I am human and subject to error. I cannot possibly represent the beliefs of all Christians on these matters. Additionally, I am Protestant, rather than Catholic, though I do not closely identify with any one denomination beyond being fairly conservative.

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Time to Find a Successor

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There comes a time when every president, director, CEO and dictator for life must cede his or her title to a successor (okay, maybe not dictators for life). If you run a student group now, but you won’t in the fall, now is a perfect time to start think ing about next year’s leadership! Ensure the continuity of your group: appoint, elect, or train a successor.

If this school year ends and your club has no certain direction, your community and vision may have trouble finding its feet next year, or may not even exist at all. Ensure next year’s leadership so you can hit the ground running in the fall.

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Video Game Trivia

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videogametriviaNintendo was not the only company that was experimenting in the 16 bit era. Sega, too, tried many ideas, some successful, many less so. One of their more successful experiments was the Sega Channel. Released in 1994 and lasting until 1998, the Sega Channel was a service offered by cable companies that would plug into a Sega Genesis, which was known as the Mega Drive outside of the US. This gave the user access to a set number of games on a rotating basis, some of which were not released commercially. It also featured demos of upcoming games, Sega news, and the occasional contest. At the peak of its American popularity, a third of the population had access to it, of which 250,000 households subscribed. This was out of 2 million Genesis consoles sold in the US.

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Olin to Cut the Power

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At 3pm today the College will turn off all non-essential power.

The idea of turning off the power was first pushed by Assistant Dean Nick Tatar after hearing about several experiments to turn off the internet on other campuses. “The reports coming back from those campuses were incredible. It was like the weights had been taken off everyone’s shoulders. Everyone seemed so happy to not have to keep one eye on their inbox and the other on Facebook and Twitter. We’re just taking this one step farther by turning all of the power off for the day.”

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